Back in the day it was simply understood that if you were going to play sports you were going to run alot.  Now it seems as though you only run if you run as you would in the chosen sport.  So baseball players run the bases, and do sprints since that is what they will do in a game.  Football players condition for short spurts of quickness instead of running for longer periods of time.

So here is my question.  Is it a good idea for athletes to run longer distances for fitness?  If a high school player is able to run for 1 hour on a slow run then won't that help him in whatever sport he chooses to play?  Let me know your ideas.