Lacrosse or baseball? It is an age-old debate that philosophers have discussed since the beginning of time. Not really, but this topic can often start fierce arguments amongst athletes.
In the spring, there’s baseball as well as lacrosse. While lacrosse may not have the title of being the “national pastime,” lacrosse players have plenty to say about why their sport is better than baseball, and vice versa. The rivalry between the teams at Northwood went to the point where two diss tracks were posted on SoundCloud, one of which is by Conner Leinbach, aka C-Rhymes, titled “Lax Diss.”
“There’s definitely some player dislike between the sports specifically at Northwood, but I think it’s the fact that we’re in the same season,” senior baseball player Conner Leinbach said. “If you don’t make the baseball team, you try out for the lacrosse team, because everyone can play on the lacrosse team.”
Lacrosse, often referred to as “the fastest game on two feet,” is a high-speed contact sport that compels the participants to be fit and in shape, particularly because it involves intensive running. The average midfielder can run five to seven miles in one game of lacrosse. Furthermore, there are different kinds of fakes, dodges and moves, all of which require footwork.
Sophomore lacrosse player Tanner Althoff compared running during a lacrosse game to running during a baseball game.
“We don’t run from point A to point B; we run all over the place,” Althoff said. “In baseball, you just run for 90 feet or whatever it is and then stop. Lacrosse is just constant, and there is physical hitting, unlike other sports.”
Baseball involves the specific skills of throwing, hitting and catching, all of which require work and practice to acquire. Many of the top hitters in the game do not have tremendous speed or strength, but they all have a high-level of hand-eye coordination.
Sophomore baseball player Max Hundley described the skills demanded for baseball compared to lacrosse.
“I feel like a lot of the skills are kind of the same, like speed and hand-eye coordination,” Hundley said. “Reaction time has to be pretty good for baseball players, like when a pitch is coming and you have to decide whether you’re going to swing or not, so I guess reaction time is a more important aspect of baseball.”
When determining which sport is harder, how painful the sport is can be considered. Baseball players may have aches and pains after a game, maybe a rug burn or two from sliding into a base or a sore shoulder from throwing the ball repeatedly for a long period of time. On the other hand, cuts and bruises are a daily outcome of lacrosse practices, let alone games.
Senior lacrosse player Sean O’Donnell mentioned the physical danger of lacrosse.
“In lacrosse, you have a whole bunch of guys running around with six-foot metal sticks trying to hit you and physically overpower other players,” O’Donnell said. “It is a game of not only skill but physical dominance, and the Native Americans invented the game as a way to train for war. You have no shin padding and little forearm padding; all the pads are as light as possible. My legs and forearms are often covered in bruises and lacerations after a tough game. It is one of the most dangerous sports.”
Furthermore, lacrosse has been described as a combination of several other sports and is a game of back-and-forths; there are no pitching changes, mound visits, time taken or pitchers taking 30 seconds between each pitch.
Lacrosse coach Kevin McDaniel explained the complexity of the game.
“Lacrosse is a faster paced game; you have to think on your feet a lot,” McDaniel said. “There are the strategies of basketball and hockey that come into play; lacrosse is like six-on-six basketball where you are trying to move around to get a good shot, so you’re setting picks, rolling away, reading the defense and trying to get open to get good opportunities to score. In baseball, they throw a ball at you, and you hit it and run around bases.”
Baseball players argue that their sport contains unique strategies that are just as complex. Furthermore, baseball players insist that they are overall better athletes.
“The lacrosse team lost in a three-game series in a mutual sport that was chosen by both parties, basketball, and they lost 18-21 the first game,” Leinbach said. “I believe the second game finished 10-21, so they lost 2 out of the 3 games. It was a straight blow out, and the baseball team had a bad game and still managed to win; we are superior athletes.”
Undoubtedly, both of these sports are quite tough and require a great deal of effort. But as the weather gets warmer and the seasons for these games begin again, will the victory go to a stick and pads or a glove and a bat?
– By Briana Stone