Jhoan Duran Settled It: Hitting a Baseball is the Hardest Athletic Feat

[Ted Schwerzler]

On Wednesday, the Minnesota Twins turned to their closer in a game that they had well in hand. Despite a 7-1 lead, Jhoan Duran hadn’t pitched since the weekend and an off day was on the docket. With little to hold back, he uncorked a 104.8 mph fastball, the hardest throw of his career. That settled the debate, hitting a baseball is unfathomably hard.

 

Image courtesy of Matt Krohn-USA TODAY Sports

It was truly insane to see Jhoan Duran put 105 mph on the screen during the Bally Sports North broadcast. We have obviously grown accustomed to him hitting triple-digits, but anything north of 103 mph is going to raise eyebrows and jump a bit more off the page. When Rocco Baldelli called on his closer Wednesday, the 104.8 mph fastball was nothing short of exceptional.

I have had this debate before, and that pitch seemed to spark it again.

The beauty of sports is that while they do exist at the professional level, there are avenues for the regular person to routinely participate in them as well. Whether at a lower amateur level or in your backyard, being active through the lens of sports is a pastime that many can get on board with.

Unfortunately for the everyday person, there is no athletic feat requiring more dexterity and difficulty than hitting a baseball. Sure, I can understand that the best players are considered elite when succeeding just 30% of the time, and while that’s not the talking point I’m out to make here, it probably only furthers the point on the surface.

Here’s the deal, this isn’t about whether or not a regular person can compete at the highest level or compete against the best players. Boiled down simply, it stands to reason there is nothing more difficult than hitting a baseball. It can be thrown at triple-digits by players not in the majors, and then also bent and manipulated to twist and turn through the zone at substantially slower speeds. Making a hitter look silly is something that happens all across the sport.

Certainly it’s fair to argue that playing a PGA-quality course and scoring well would be difficult, but there is nothing hard about swinging an oversized club to hit a stationary ball (especially when everyone must be quiet for you). The regular person can walk onto a basketball court and attempt a shot, however ugly, and likely see it go in with some regularity. Catching a pass or throwing a football is not all that difficult in and of itself, but instead is determinant of those opposing you.

That isn’t all inclusive of sports as a whole, and I could hear arguments for those I am not thinking of. It seems difficult to hit a cricket ball in that it comes quickly and bounces across the ground, but I’m certainly not well versed enough to make a determination there. A regular person isn’t going to pin an monster in wrestling, but the act of it could be accomplished against someone else.

At the end of the day, we keep coming back to baseball. Swinging a bat through the zone, with a competent swing, is not a normal motion for anyone. Even settling into a level of training in which you feel comfortable only leads you to the pitches themselves being brought through the zone. This isn’t just a Duran thing either. At the highest level, a look at Rob Friedman’s Twitter account on any given night should bring pause.

The good news is that the regular person will never need to step in against Duran or any other Major League pitcher. While the regular person could run through their local sporting goods store and grab a bat, there is a decent chance that contact will evade them against any reasonable level of opposition. It shouldn’t deter someone from getting into the sport, however.

There are probably arguments to be made, and nothing opinionated is ever a hard and fast stop. That said, hitting a baseball is something that truly should be revered among feats accomplished by the common man.

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[jkcarew]

Especially when you’re not trying to ‘hit’ it…you’re trying to crush it into the air and carry it 400 feet. On every attempt.

[Whitey333]

Good article.  I love Duran but I can't help but feel a little nervous each time he pitches.  I'm worried about someone throwing that hard will inevitably injury his arm and require Tommy John.  He seems like a Tommy John surgery waiting to happen.  I sure hope I'm wrong!