Is it really that hard?
Sandlot 2 is the biggest softball vs. baseball challenge of all time. In the movie, the Sandlot boys arrive at their usual playing spot, to their surprise, they witness three girls on their dirt. Dealing with intruders is hard enough when people are on any kind of property that has clearly been taken, but girls just make it worse. As the ball players begin to make a compromise, both boys and girls make some sort of bet. Winner takes the sandlot; loser leaves. Softball pitcher, Hayley Goodfairer, challenges baseball player, David Durgano, saying she can strike out him out with three pitches. Accepting the challenge, David faces an underhand softball windmill for the first time. Foul ball after foul ball, both began to get tired and weaker. In the end they call it a draw. During draws, there is no winner and no loser. The symbolization here can indicate that neither sport is harder or easier than the other.
Softball and baseball, in general, are too different to be compared on their difficulties. Baseball players can’t hit a softball pitch effectively because they have never seen that kind of pitching before. This is equivalent to a professional badminton player to step onto a tennis court. Though these sports are very similar with the same kind of big idea, they are very different. With tennis, the net is low to the ground and the court is bigger. In badminton, the net is high and the court in shorter. Badminton players must focus on the speed and spin of the birdie, tennis focuses on power and timing of the ball.
Some researches say that softball hitters hit less than baseball hitters because the kind of pitching is more difficult to hit. The top three softball hitters in America, as of 2015, all have batting averages over .500, while the top three baseball hitters hit just over .420. If hitting a softball is harder, than these numbers do not add up to support that statement. Because of the smaller softball field, the infield and bases are both a shorter distance. The shorter distance will cause many more infield hits than baseball hitters can produce. There are aspects in both sports that make each have many different difficulties. The sports are just too different to judge whether one is harder than the other.
In both baseball and softball, batters succeed only when they can strike the ball with enough force and accuracy to place it where defensive players are not. The mechanics of successful batters differ, but they need to be equally skilled players who practice responding to pitches that behave differently in the two sports. On average, the hardball arrives sooner at the plate, giving the batter less time to react. Baseball players practice to reduce their reaction time, or to decide earlier. On the other hand, the softball arrives on an upward plane, startling to new players and very disconcerting to accomplished baseball players. But given enough time to practice, hardball batters could adapt to softball hitting, and vice versa. Neither sport is harder.
Let’s say a badminton player has played tennis for the same amount of time, we could see what sport that player has more success with. The player can give a better measure for what sport they have more difficulties in than the other. The same concept applies to softball and baseball. Very little to no baseball players also play fast pitch softball. If there were any that did, there is no analysis on them. Researchers have also done no recorded scenario where a softball hitter batted against a baseball pitcher. Overall, stating that one sport is harder than the other is too broad of a statement.
Works Citied
H. (2014). Difference Between Tennis and Badminton. Retrieved November 23, 2016.
Rowan Counterintuitive 
feedback provided
—DSH
I wasn’t completely sure what view I wanted to take here because my thesis has changed since I started. I viewed this by rebutting my original thesis that softball is harder than baseball. I’m arguing in the rebuttal argument that this can’t be proved.
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Can you provide a link to your source, please, Beyonce? I can’t tell from what you’ve written what sort of article it is or where it might be found.
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Sandlot 2, the biggest softball vs. baseball challenge of all time.
[I take it this is a reference to the film comedy. If so, you’ll need punctuation on that title. Also, this is not a sentence, so you need your readers’ permission to confuse them with this fragment. To receive it, you can’t further confuse them. Be sure they know it’s a movie title.]
As the Sandlot boys arrive at their usual playing spot.
[This is another fragment. It might be OK in a magazine article, but not in an academic paper. Write sentences, Beyonce.]
Surprised, they to witness
[to witness?]
three girls on their dirt. It is hard enough to deal with intruders, but girls make it worse. To get these girls to stop practice their softball and leave, the girls make a bet.
[To get the girls to leave, the girls make a bet? Does that make sense?]
Softball pitcher, Hayley Goodfairer, challenges baseball player, David Durgano, saying she can strike out him out with three pitches. Winner takes the sandlot; losers leave. Accepting the challenge, David faces an under hand
[underhand]
softball windmill for the first time. Foul ball after foul ball, both call it a draw. There is no winner and no loser. This is an accurate symbolization that proves that neither sport is harder or easier than the other.
[Three of your ten sentences begin weakly, with “It is,” and “There is,” and “This is.” Revise for more robust subjects and verbs.]
That said, you’ve chosen a good scene to demonstrate your thesis: that trying to determine which sport is more difficult, or requires more skill, ends in a draw.
May I offer a revision that I hope will look like your own paragraph after a hard crossfit workout?
If a badminton player has played tennis for the same amount of time, we could see what sport that player has more success with. This can give a better measure for what sport has more difficulties than the other. The same concept applies to softball and baseball. There are little or no baseball players that also play fast pitch baseball. If there were any that did, there is no analysis on them. Overall, saying one sport is harder than the other is too broad of a statement.
[Again, your subjects, verbs, and initial words include: “This can,” and “There are,” and “there were,” and “there is,” and “sport is,” and “the other is.”]
Is this helpful?
—DSH
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I am disappointed to see no science in your argument, Beyonce. I had hoped when you adopted your thesis (either version), that you’d find some quantifiable evidence of the mechanics of the two sports, the average speed to the plate, a kinesthetic analysis of the relative difficulty of analyzing the paths of upward and downward planes, maybe even a study that recorded the abilities of actual players to make their first attempts at the two sports. There’s nothing wrong with asking readers to trust your assertions, but they’re not as likely to be persuaded without something concrete.
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feedback provided
—DSH
I took your feedback from before and made alterations. I feel like this is an improved version, but I’m not quite sure that it is there yet.
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Just a few notes, Beyonce
P1. —Start your second sentence with the words, “In the movie, the Sandlot boys . . . .”
—Your sentence, “Foul ball after foul ball, both call it a draw” MEANS that they call it a draw after every foul ball. That can’t be true.
—Sure, the movie charmingly illustrates the perhaps surprising conclusion that hardball hitters can’t hit good softball pitching, but your reader won’t accept that as PROOF, so don’t call it proof.
P2. —You say baseball players can’t hit a softball, but you don’t claim the opposite. Why? Readers expect the reciprocity. If there is none, say so. If it exists, say so.
—Your analogy to badminton is a little strange. I would have used TENNIS and TABLE TENNIS and said something like. Expecting baseball players to be good softball players is like expecting professional tennis players to excel at table tennis. The games look similar, but the skills needed to play them are very different.
—Whichever games you use, THIS is the place to emphasize the differences in field size and distances. When you’re comparing the two sports, and the skills required, and how we measure successful hits, readers want to know about the differences in the infield and outfield sizes that will help calculate batting averages.
P3. —You’ll still compare batting averages, but readers will have a better idea how difficult comparisons are once they understand the dimension differences.
—I never thought of this, but if the distance from the mound to the plate is shorter, softball pitches might actually arrive SOONER than baseball pitches. Can you tell me which is true? We need a little science.
—The fastest baseball pitches hit the plate at about 100mph. But they travel 60 feet 6 inches. College softballs travel just 43 feet. I don’t know at what speed. But you need to get that number and do some division.
—You lay out some numbers but without guidance you leave readers to draw their own conclusions. Provide guidance. Are softball’s higher batting averages the result of the extra grounders making it through the infield? Wouldn’t that be balanced by a higher fielding percentage for outfielders in the smaller outfields? If the bottom line is that too many variables make comparison impossible, be sure to draw that conclusion clearly before readers draw their own.
You say things like “some researchers,” Beyonce, but your post lacks ANY citation. You need to credit your sources with informal citations in the body of your paragraphs, not merely by adding a source to the Works Cited. [Technically, your WC for this essay as it stands should be empty since you haven’t actually CITED anything.]
Ever heard of this?:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All-American_Girls_Professional_Baseball_League_rules_of_play
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