[philwelch]

Baseball pitchers regularly play well into their 40's. Jamie Moyer was still pitching a month or two shy of turning 50. For soccer players, still playing at 40 is nearly unheard of. Ryan Giggs did it, but that's about it, and it was mostly sentimentality that kept him playing that last year or so. So I would disagree that baseball is that much more taxing than soccer.

[jghn]

"Baseball pitchers regularly play well into their 40's"

Unless you're someone like Mark Prior who had their body give out when their career was just getting started. Why are you only highlighting the outliers, the genetic freaks (amongst genetic freaks no less)?

The thing with baseball pitchers is that there's an enormous selective pressure on their bodies (primarily shoulder & elbow) being able to withstand the brutal toll throwing all those pitches causes. The absolute best pitchers (talent wise) might never even make it to the MLB because their arm falls apart before they get a chance. There are pitching motions which hurt my arm just doing them in slow motion, now imagine heaving a baseball 90+ mph repeatedly for your entire life.

This is a far different selective pressure than what e.g. soccer players would have where quickness & speed on their feet is what matters.

The problem with these discussions is that people are using words like "taxing" to only narrowly mean what they want it to mean.

[philwelch]

There are lots of Major League pitchers in their 40's. There might be no Premier League outfield players in their 40's. Lots of players in both sports get injured and end their careers in their 20's.

No doubt that a starting pitcher's pitching arm takes a lot of abuse, but they can have much longer careers than almost any other athlete.

[jghn]

That's not my point, what I was saying is that the two have completely different curves due to relying on completely different physical attributes.

A soccer player (or NBA player or many NFL positions, etc) is going to deteriorate steadily as they age after hitting some peak year. For some sports there'll be a slight bubble after that ast the intersection of athleticism decreasing and increasing wisdom but not for all. Sure, someone might endure a catastrophic injury and some players are made of glass (e.g. Greg Oden in the NBA) but generally players will wash out either when their athleticism is not high enough for their level or it deteriorates below the level necessary.

A baseball pitcher's curve is different. Their arm/shoulder will either be able to withstand the long term abuse or it won't and if it's the latter they'll wash out pretty early on (likely long before they ever see an MLB field). Once they clear that hurdle the actual deterioration rate is much slower in the general case. It also helps that pitching is a position where accumulated wisdom can really help, a lot like the quarterback in american football and that can help balance out declining athleticism as well