Among team sports, baseball would rank toward the top of the list in the importance of a need for player speed and agility. It is a game of inches. Players have been likened to ballet dancers. Their movements have to be instinctive and executed with precision, speed and accuracy. Think of a well executed double play. It's a work of art.
Yes, you can say that all team sports require speed and agility and it's true. The difference is that in baseball the defensive play is usually made by either one or two players, they may have only seconds to make the play and it has to be dead accurate.

I sometimes sympathize with individual baseball players. They are out there all by themselves in front of the whole world and the opportunity for physical and mental errors are enormous. There is often no time to think. It's do or die. This is why a well executed play is a thing of beauty. It's also why a poorly executed play or error is so glaringly ugly. It just can't be covered up.

Compare this to the shot gun offense in football where there may be a lot of passing choices. If the pass isn't right on the numbers, the receiver may be able to adjust and catch the ball anyway. On the other hand, a throw out to first base has to be accurate within a few inches. And the play has to be done at lightening speed with no time for the fielder to set up for the throw. Whatever position he finds himself in when he catches the ball, he's going to have to throw from that position. This is not entirely true, but you get the point.

It's an old axiom in baseball that the game is built on failures. Implicit in this is recognition of all the opportunities for physical and mental errors that arguably exceed those of any other team sport. Speed, agility, quickness and accuracy are at a premium. Plays can happen at high speed with no time for backup to get in position and no one player can make up for the error of another.

Baseball is a marvelous game held together by tension………tension between the potential beauty of a perfectly executed play and the disappointment of a glaring error open for all the world to see.