Which merely goes to show that you know nothing about hitting a baseball.
Gonna have to disagree with you on that score. I think everyone would agree that an NFL quarterback needs to be an outstanding athlete. But, when you boil his job down to the essentials, it's not much more than playing catch while getting the crap beat out of you. Is that athletic? Not when it's described that way, it's not.
Hitting a baseball, and then running the basepaths, are quite athletic endeavors. If we attempt to whittle sports down to pure athleticism, we'll end up with marathon runners. Now that's boring.
Pro bowlers and billiard players (Bet you can't name a few dozen?) are active in their sports up into their geriatric years. Few baseball players are still competitive by the time they reach their late thirties. That's because the ATHLETIC SKILLS required have left them. I have never heard of a pro bowler or billiard player whose body could not handle the demands of the game in their later years.