[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