When Jason and Travis Kelce mock your sport’s grind, you don’t just let it slide. A two-time MLB All-Star just stepped up to the plate to explain exactly why the Kelce brothers are wrong, sparking a debate about what true athletic endurance really means. 

“You guys play once a week, we play ‘almost’ everyday,” remarked 2x All-Star Jonathan Lucroy.

Jason Kelce and Travis Kelce were having a casual chat on their ‘New Heights’ podcast, where they discussed why Travis hated baseball. A small clip of their conversation on the specific sport went viral.

“The reason why I didn’t play baseball in my sophomore and junior year was conditioning in baseball… get me the f*** out of here,” said Kelce. “Why am I running foul pole to foul pole?”

The Kelce brothers questioned the training methods used in baseball, as they believed it had no real connection to the game.

Then, in his tweet, Lucroy highlighted the daily workload involved in baseball and how running between the foul poles helps build aerobic endurance to help recover between games. 

“We play 162 games. Plus Spring training, and then the playoffs if we get there. If you make the WS, you are talking 190+ games. NFL games are brutally violent, and I’m not understating that, but our game is more about endurance and longevity over a 7-month season of daily attrition,” Lucroy explained in his tweet.

The All-Star catcher himself is aware of how physically demanding the game is and explained how it takes a lot to play his position.

“Just for myself, I caught 200+ pitches every time I caught. That means I did at least 200 squats every game. (not counting warm-ups before the game and at the start of an inning.) If I caught 120 games in a season, that’s 24,000 squats I did over the course of the regular season. Plus all of ST, and then the warmups before and during the game,” Lucroy tweeted.

With this high-intensity grind, Lucroy became an All-Star twice (2014 & 2016) while with the Milwaukee Brewers, and ultimately became the franchise’s face.

An NFL season consists of only 17-games for each team, played over an 18-week period. Meanwhile, they even get one bye week, between week 5 and week 14, to rest and recover. MLB doesn’t have anything like that!

Baseball’s grind requires extreme endurance because of the league’s daily games (almost), heavy travel, and mental exhaustion. It demands elite physical and mental stamina to maintain form. And along with a 162-game regular season, teams that qualify for the postseason play an additional 20 to 30 games throughout October, extending the marathon till the beginning of November.

No wonder Lucroy took a strong stand for his sport. Even with that, he gave the NFL its due respect, too. 

NFL and MLB have their own difficulties

Football involves way more activity from all the players during the entire game. But it’s only 60 minutes. Whereas a standard 9 innings in MLB lasts around 2 to 2.5 hrs. If it goes to extra innings, that’s a different and more difficult story.

The 18-inning Game 3 of the 2025 World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays lasted 6 hours and 39 minutes.

Sprinting is necessary in football, but baseball needs endurance. True, you don’t run around the field all the time, but even standing on your feet, being ready to move within a nanosecond requires fitness too. And doing that almost 6 days a week doesn’t make it any easier. 

Hitting requires a balanced stance, bat speed, and hand-eye coordination to drive the ball. For fielding, players need proper positioning, soft hands, and quick, consistent throwing mechanics (especially for infielders). Pitchers have to focus on accuracy and power through proper, consistent arm motion. Speed, agility, and the ability to read the ball and pitcher make a baserunner successful in advancing, including proper sliding techniques.

Lucroy also highlighted the amount of squats he had to do as a catcher. Plus, catchers need to frame the ball for quick blocking and accurate throwing to bases.

In the end, it’s not about which is more difficult. It’s just perspective. While the NFL grabs a lot of headlines, the technical nuance required to play baseball is unique and offers a brilliant viewing experience. Don’t we all agree to that?