| dc.description.abstract | Three studies were done to demonstrate that formalized
sports can be used to test or observe the operation of
psychological phenomena. Major league baseball was chosen
as the representative sport, in part because of the
completeness of its data record. In the first study, the
notion that positive affective arousal enhances performance
on certain tasks was tested with respect to a player's
birthday, an event presumed to generate a positive
affective state. Sixty-two major league baseball players,
whose birthdays fell between April and October and who were
active between 1970 and 1982, were selected from the
Official Encyclopedia of Baseball (1982). Their
performance on their birthdays were extracted from
boxscores of games listed in the New York Times during the
years stated. Finally, their batting performance on their
birthdays was compared to their overall batting performance
during the years in question. Results suggest a trend
toward the existence of a birthday effect, however, this
trend does not achieve statistical significance. The second
study involved the application of territoriality theories
to baseball. Numerous studies have demonstrated that teams
playing on their home field win significantly more often
than the visiting teams, an effect which is often
marginally significant in baseball. Therefore, focusing on
extraordinary physical feats, this study attempted to determine whether and to what extent a
relationship existed between no-hitters and home field
setting. All no-hitters pitched since the turn of the
century were examined to determine if such a relationship
existed, using a chi-square goodness of fit test. Results
suggest that territoriality does exist when using
no-hitters as a measure of peak performance. The home field
advantage seems to increase as the superiority of
performance increases. The final study involved the
extension of personality theories to baseball performance.
Following a recent finding of an inverse relationship
between pitching control and longevity, the present study
attempted to determine if a similar relationship prevailed
with respect to fielding performance and longevity. The
lifetime fielding averages of 155 deceased former major
league baseball players, who played a minimum of five years
between 1920 and 1930, were correlated with their age at
death. Results suggest that no such relationship exists.
However, a trend toward a relationship between the lifetime
fielding average and age at death of catchers was evident.
It is possible that it is the consequences of one's
mistakes that are related to longevity since pitchers and
catchers are arguably the two most important players on a
baseball team. | |
