Of the four major professional sports in the US, it's generally assumed that baseball players are the stupidest.

This is for a number of reasons. Unlike football, basketball, and (in the States) hockey, baseball players don't have to attend college to join the professional ranks. In fact, attending college is usually a sign that the player will never be among the top talents in the sport.

Further, baseball simply doesn't require much thinking. Even the gruntiest of football linemen must learn reams upon reams of complicated plays, each with different alignments and actions. And that is the simple position. Basketball and hockey players also have plays and offensive and defensive rotations that they must go through.

Baseball players? See ball. Hit ball. Catch ball. There are other things: sometimes they have to back up another base or something. Half the time they forget to even do that. Baseball players just aren't the brightest bulbs.

So consider us a little taken aback to learn that The Sporting News named a baseball player — Craig Breslow, lefty reliever currently of the Oakland A's — as the smartest athlete in all of sports. Craig's a Yale grad and gave up med school for baseball.

Smart baseball player. Wow. Kind of like athletic Jew, huh?