FORT MYERS - Joe Benson batted twice in Monday's exhibition game against the St. Louis Cardinals. He struck out both times and left four runners on base.

Early Tuesday morning, Benson was watching tape of those at-bats and others with Joe Vavra, the Twins' batting coach.

This is the first big-league camp for Benson, the Twins' second-round choice in the 2006 draft. He had a bases-loaded triple in the first game of the exhibition schedule. He also had five strikeouts in 16 at-bats.

Benson turned 23 earlier this month. He played football and baseball for Batavia High School in Illinois. He had a game in which he carried 17 times for 363 yards and five touchdowns. Illinois and Northwestern encouraged him to take a football scholarship and play both sports.

Benson took the Twins' money instead. In 2010, he started his fifth pro season at Class AA New Britain, two large steps from the big leagues. And when he struggled, he was sent back to Class A Fort Myers for three weeks.

Amazing, isn't it? This kid is a 6-foot-2, 215-pound rock, and he might be able to outrun anyone in this camp other than Ben Revere. And yet here he is, a tremendous athlete getting ready for Season 6, and he's still trying to learn the skills of getting the fat part of the bat on the ball, taking the shortest route to fly balls and running the bases.

If Benson had gone to Illinois and became a star running back, his worry would be whether a lockout was going to delay his third NFL season. As a ballplayer, the concern this spring is if he can make a strong impression on the Twins' big-league staff - and then convince the organization that he should start this season at Class AAA Rochester rather than back in New Britain.

We aren't surprised when it takes seven, eight years for a baseball "prospect'' to make his way to the big leagues. And yet the only development of skills required to reach the NFL or the NBA comes in college, and in the NHL, a player such as James Sheppard is on the brink of being a wash out at age 22.

I actually have pondered this for years: What is it about baseball that an 18-year-old can struggle against A ball pitching, then learn to handle it, and keep doing that - struggle, adapt, succeed - against ever-increasing levels of competition until he makes it in the big leagues (or doesn't)?

Jim Kaat has been in spring training as one of those legend/instructors in recent days. He's also one of the smartest guys I know when it comes to baseball. And that question was asked of Kaat on Tuesday morning:

"What makes baseball so much more difficult for a talented athlete to progress and eventually master than the other team sports in this country?''

Kaat said: "For a young hitter, for a kid like this Joe Benson that you mentioned, I would say the No. 1 thing is all the different pitchers that he has to face.

"In football, there are only so many ways a guy can block you, and in basketball, if you're quicker than the other guy, or stronger, you're going to be effective. But in baseball, every pitcher is a different challenge.

"A hitter has to learn to handle different pitches, different speeds, different arm angles, 6-5 righthanders, 5-10 lefthanders. And as you move up, they throw harder, hit more corners and the pitches move more.''

Kaat was a terrific pitcher, a terrific fielder and an adequate hitter. With that pitching background, he says: "The toughest challenge in sports in hitting a baseball.''

And as an example, Kaat talked of running into Michael Jordan when the greatest basketball player the world has known was trying to discover if he could succeed in pro baseball.

"The White Sox had Bill Melton working with him,'' Kaat said. "I was talking with Michael and I said, ‘I watched you take some swings and I'll bet what Bill's trying to do is get you to shorten your swing.'

"And Jordan said, ‘That's exactly what he's trying to do, but, man, it's hard. It's the toughest thing I've ever tried to do in sports.' ‘'