"These Things Frickin' Hum!" - Americans Put Hurling To The Test In Sporting Challenge

"This is our slee-o-tar, or sliotar, as some people say." Hurling has been pitched against baseball, softball, tennis and cricket in a sporting challenge to determine which hits hardest.

Over the years, there have been plenty of videos and online clips of Americans reacting to Gaelic football and hurling. It is usually a healthy mix of awe, appreciation, surprise and 'Ouch!'

Now, popular American content creators, The Baseball Bat Bros. have sought to answer the age old question - Which sport hits its' balls hardest?

The ultimate bat showdown - Baseball vs. Softball vs. Cricket vs. Tennis vs. Hurling - took place at Vince Genna Stadium in Bend, Oregon and we only wish they had summoned a seasoned hurler to represent for our national game.

Will Taylor and his brother, JT set up the endeavour in 2018 and regularly get online views in the millions for challenges and quirky videos mainly based around baseball. More recently, though, they have sought to widen the net by looping in other sports.

In the latest video, Taylor seeks to discover the maximum distance from strikes with different sporting bats/sticks/racquets and the top exit velocity from those strikes. The one-time professional baseball hopeful's comments on hurling will be music to the ears of most Gaels.

Will Taylor started off the 'Ultimate Bat Showdown' with a softball bat, peaking at a top exit velocity of 99mph (159 kilometres per hour) and distance of 335 feet.

Turning to cricket, Taylor managed 93mph (149 kph) for a distance of 320 feet when using a cricket ball. As an experiment, he used the cricket bat to thwack a few baseballs and sent one flying 360 feet for the first home-run of the showdown.

While Taylor was able to muster an exit velocity of 112mph (180 kph) with a tennis racquet, the lighter tennis ball (in comparison to the other sports) only travelled 193 feet. Hurling was next up and, impressed, Taylor declared:

For my non-Irish people out there, I'd like to introduce you to the wonderful sport of hurling. It's kind of like field hockey, lacrosse and ice-hockey, but the ball is like a baseball. It's the same type of wood, pretty much, as they use for baseball bats.

The Oregon native initially struggled, hurl in hand, to uncork shots with his baseball swing but started to get a feel for it when throwing it up for his own strikes - "Dude, these things frickin' hum!" The sliotars were then fed back into the baseball pitcher and Taylor topped out at 90mph (144 kph) for a distance of 290 feet.

"No chance this was going to win," he said, "but I am very impressed. I know I'm not using it right, but 90 is legit."

For context, the fastest recorded strike of a sliotar, in competitive action was Kilkenny's TJ Reid belting one 112.5mph (181 kph) in the 2014 GAA All Ireland Senior Hurling Championship semi-final, against Limerick. The average shot speed, in that year's championship (measured by Hawkeye) was 77mph (124 kph).

Taylor wrapped up on home soil, so to speak, as he pinged a few home-runs and topped out at 109mph (175 kph) for a max distance of 431 feet.

At the end of the showdown, Taylor declared tennis the winner as it achieved the highest exit velocity. The fastest recorded tennis serve was by Sam Groth, at 163.7mph (263.4 kph) at a Challenger event.

Our suggestion for a showdown rematch - get a top level player from each sport to step into Taylor's shoes, and try out a few different metrics and measurables.