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This study examined the disappointment experienced by baseball fans following an unexpected loss by their team, which prolonged a long championship drought. Disappointment Theory (Bell, 1985; Loomes & Sugden, 1986) was used to make predictions about the reactions of 245 fans of the Cleveland Indians following their October 2007 loss to the Boston Red Sox. Fans completed a mailed questionnaire which measured their disappointment, dedication to the team, expectation for the team "s performance, and effort invested in the team. Correlational and regression analyses provided support for the predictions that disappointment was positively related to expectation for success, that disappointment was positively related to effort invested in the team, and that disappointment was positively related to dedication to the team. While these results suggest that Disappointment Theory is useful for understanding the emotional reactions of sport fans, the retrospective nature of the design resulted in limitations, especially for the measurement of expectation for success. Prospective studies will be necessary to more fully test the predictions., The Cleveland Indians have not won a World Series since 1948, when they beat the Boston Braves in 6 games. In the ensuing 60 years, their fans have experienced many [...]

We examined the association between month of birth and completed suicides among major league baseball players (N = 76). More than twice as many players born in August committed suicide (N = 19) than any other birth month. This association was statistically significant when birth month was corrected for differences in days of the month. The differences were even larger when expressed in terms of birth month for those committing suicides divided by number of major league players born in each month. The association between birth month and suicide raises the possibility that prenatal factors may influence the inclination for suicide later in life.

Using archival data on the performance of major league baseball players from 1970 to 1989, this paper examines the effects of changing teams on individual performance. We replicate and expand on earlier studies by using multiple and novel measures of performance, by extending the analysis to the performance of both hitters and pitchers, and by examining for the first time how free agents respond to moving between teams. The findings show that both hitters and pitchers involved in mid-season trades showed significant post-trade improvements following sub-par performances prior to being traded. Pitchers and hitters traded between seasons also enjoyed better years with their new teams although performance improvements for pitchers did not last beyond the season following a trade. Free agents, whether hitters or pitchers, showed no improvements after signing contracts with new teams and a deterioration in performance in their second year with a new team., The present study examines the effects of changing teams on the performance of major league baseball players. As established in previous research on professional hockey players (White, McTeer & Vagi, [...]

A study of the influence of psychological and physical skills on baseball players shows that performance and survival are independent attributes, but significantly influence the outcomes in professional baseball. Psychological skills affect athletic performance variance even in the absence of physical skill differences. Psychological scales show that learning opportunities from instructional programs focussing on the psychological and technical skill development is imperative.

Zajonc's (1965) drive theory explanation argues that greater arousal tends to impair performance on difficult tasks. The hypothesis that arousal generated by 'pressure situations' during major league baseball games would hinder batting performance - a difficult task - was tested by examining such performance during the 1989 season. Six 'pressure situations' were identified, some occurring during the late innings of close games and others occurring throughout the game when there were two outs. Two measures of batting performance (batting average and, slugging average) were employed. Results indicated broad support for the hypothesis. Reasons for this pattern are discussed, as are possible alternative explanations for these findings.

Archival data from major league baseball games playd during the 1986, 1987, and 1988 seasons (total N = 826 games) were used to assess the association between the temperatures at the games and the number of batters hit by a pitch during them. A positive and significant relationship was found between temperature and the number of hit batters per game, even when potentially confounding variables having nothing to do with aggression were partialed out. A similar relationship was found for games played during the 1962 season. The shape of this relationship appears to be linear, suggesting that higher temperatures lead major league pitchers to become more aggressive in pitching to batters.