When I was a young kid, my town played eight-man football. Man, what a game! The crazy scores! The wild pass plays, the incredible runs from scrimmage!
I was looking at a college baseball doubleheader that I last shot with my 300/2.8,and the incredibly high number of keepers I got with it after not having shot a single baseball game in seven years. The lens is just made for baseball! In fact I think on a percentage basis the 300/2.8 is possibly the single best picture-maker for sports of many types.
With today's higher and higher megapixel cameras, cropping in has become a real, viable possibility. With a 24 megapixel or higher camera, I have almost no compunction against cropping away half of the frame, to pull out whatever image lies within .