More people can dunk or hit a HR?

[Jr.]

A friend of mine posted this Deadspin article on facebook and I find it a really interesting discussion.

https://deadspin.com/can-more-people-hit-a-home-run-or-dunk-a-basketball-1797898854

If you brought every human on earth to a Major League ballpark and pitched them batting practice balls, and also set up a 10-foot basketball hoop, could more people hit a home run or successfully dunk a basketball? Assume they can swing until they get tired and that they can get a running start and don’t have to dribble to dunk.

Vote and post your thoughts

[Dave_S]

Re: More people can dunk or hit a HR?

Can you use any bat, like fungo, corked, aluminum?

For me the answer is easy, I could MAYBE dunk. If someone pitches a baseball to me I duck and cover, lol. (When I was younger a bully used to whip baseballs at me when I wasn't looking, been terrified of baseballs ever since)

[Jr.]

Re: More people can dunk or hit a HR?

Can you use any bat, like fungo, corked, aluminum?

For me the answer is easy, I could MAYBE dunk. If someone pitches a baseball to me I duck and cover, lol. (When I was younger a bully used to whip baseballs at me when I wasn't looking, been terrified of baseballs ever since)

Wood bat.. good point I didn't think about haha.

[superjames1992]

Re: More people can dunk or hit a HR?

I can dunk a tennis ball. I probably could dunk a basketball if I really practiced for it, but I can't quite jump high enough to do it with two hands and I can't palm the basketball well enough with one hand since my hands aren't that big. I'm 6'0".

I doubt I could hit a home run considering I haven't swung a baseball bat in years.

Anyways, I think the answer is hitting a homerun. Most of the world's population is just too short to dunk. The average American male is 5'9"-5'10" and most of the developing world has average heights lower than that. Of course, it is still possible to dunk at these heights, but you have to be pretty dang athletic to do so. Not to mention very, very few females are going to be able to dunk, not that many are going to be able to hit a homerun, either. I'd imagine very little of the world's population would be able to do either.

[Jr.]

Re: More people can dunk or hit a HR?

I can dunk a tennis ball. I probably could dunk a basketball if I really practiced for it, but I can't quite jump high enough to do it with two hands and I can't palm the basketball well enough with one hand since my hands aren't that big. I'm 6'0".

I doubt I could hit a home run considering I haven't swung a baseball bat in years.

Anyways, I think the answer is hitting a homerun. Most of the world's population is just too short to dunk. The average American male is 5'9"-5'10" and most of the developing world has average heights lower than that. Of course, it is still possible to dunk at these heights, but you have to be pretty dang athletic to do so. Not to mention very, very few females are going to be able to dunk, not that many are going to be able to hit a homerun, either. I'd imagine very little of the world's population would be able to do either.

Yeah I'd guess a miniscule number of the total population would be able to do either.

[Dave_S]

Re: More people can dunk or hit a HR?

I didn't think about the height issue. I'm 6'1 and when I was in high school my dad made me do a could thousand jump rope reps a day and use some kind of hand squeezer thing specifically so I could jump higher and palm the ball.

Last time I dunked though was like 10 years ago, so I figured maybe I could do it.

In school we had more people that could dunk on the basketball team than home run hitters on the baseball team, and I'm guessing a high school baseball field is shorter than mlb? Of course our basketball team was good and our baseball team sucked.

Something I didn't think of is people that are relatively strong probably have a much higher percentage of a"lucky" home run than a dunk. If you can't jump you can't jump, and maybe a relatively strong person can get a "lucky" connection between ball and bat.


It's a fun question.

[Jr.]

Re: More people can dunk or hit a HR?

I didn't think about the height issue. I'm 6'1 and when I was in high school my dad made me do a could thousand jump rope reps a day and use some kind of hand squeezer thing specifically so I could jump higher and palm the ball.

Last time I dunked though was like 10 years ago, so I figured maybe I could do it.

In school we had more people that could dunk on the basketball team than home run hitters on the baseball team, and I'm guessing a high school baseball field is shorter than mlb? Of course our basketball team was good and our baseball team sucked.

Something I didn't think of is people that are relatively strong probably have a much higher percentage of a"lucky" home run than a dunk. If you can't jump you can't jump, and maybe a relatively strong person can get a "lucky" connection between ball and bat.


It's a fun question.

Good points. A HS field would typically be smaller than a MLB field, yes. I do agree that you can "luck" into a HR, but I think someone who has never swung a bat wouldn't be able to. However, if you have enough height and/or athleticism, you can probably dunk without ever having played basketball.

Another point I think helps the idea that more can dunk.. basketball is played much more than baseball globally. Baseball is really isolated to North American, the Caribbean, and Japan/Korea, whereas basketball is played in North America, some parts of South America, all of Europe/Russia, and China. I think that leads to more people that have trained to play basketball than baseball, and baseball is such a technical sport; you can't just pick up a bat and be able to hit a ball 330+ feet.

[WaitTilNextYear]

Re: More people can dunk or hit a HR?

I think there are more tall people and short people with mad hops than there are strong people with the coordination necessary to connect with a baseball pitched at ~65-70 MPH.

Now with that said, I would have an easier time hitting a homer than dunking because I'm 5'11" and I can't jump. I probably could not do either, but if I connected just right with a baseball, maybe there's a non-zero chance in the park with the shortest porch down the LF line (Houston?).

[PVarck31]

Re: More people can dunk or hit a HR?

Not a chance in hell I could dunk a basketball. I'm 5' 10''. But pretty sure I could hit a homerun. Played baseball for over 20 years. I've hit my share.

[Dave_S]

Re: More people can dunk or hit a HR?

India is freaking huge, any chance cricket players have a better chance of hitting home runs? Also southern China adults aren't the tallest, isn't there a fair amount of baseball players there?

[kehlis]

Re: More people can dunk or hit a HR?

I would have to throw dunking out right away, those days have sailed and I'm 6'3.

As far as homerun goes. If we're talking a wooden bat and not aluminum I'm probably out of that race as well.

It would also depend on the pitch coming in. Are we talking lollipop BP? If so I probably wouldn't be able to pull one down the line even with an aluminum bat far enough to get it out.

I would however like to think if you set up a pitching machine and turned it up to 70 or 80 to get some velocity behind it I do think I could catch one or two and get it down the line in order to get it out.

[NDAlum]

Re: More people can dunk or hit a HR?

Not many could do either lol

Where do I buy a ticket and popcorn to watch people try?

I want all the people who brag they are good at baseball and basketball video games to be VIP's who get the first attempts

[Watson]

Re: More people can dunk or hit a HR?

I'm 6'6" and the answer for me is easily hit a home run.

If you're taking batting practice balls, I think in about a week of grinding at it somebody up to their early 30's could start seeing some balls flirt with 300 feet. And in two weeks of seeing the same BP fastball? Oh yeah. Of course with baseball what constitutes a home run is completely dependent on the park. A right handed batter can go deep in Minute Maid Park without breaking a sweat, it might be an all day affair at PETCO.

With BP fastballs it's as much about timing and coordination as it is strength, and in basketball it's more or less all about ability. One can be developed more rapidly than another. Plus, there is the size thing.

[superjames1992]

Re: More people can dunk or hit a HR?

I think it is a good point that most people on earth have never swung a baseball, so that could be a problem.

Are we talking about with any practice or just throwing random people out there with no prior experience?

[RockinDaMike]

Re: More people can dunk or hit a HR?

There's just no way more people in the world can dunk. Filipinos are die hard basketball fans and they maybe 1 or 2 dunks in a pro game if that. Billions of short asians in the world and the only way they are dunking is if they are masters of Shaolin kung fu. Also asians tend to have good hand eye cordination which is needed to connect bat to ball. For dunking you have to have athleticism and height to accomplish as well skill to hold the ball.

Baseball you can get lucky and hit a homerun. I've hit homeruns in softball so I think I can at least hit one homerun if I get lucky. I'm 5'8 and played basketball all my life. The highest I ever gotten was touching maybe pass halfway on the net.