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This study examines minor league baseball players' future-oriented labor by interviewing 44 baseball players and collecting data on 8,000 minor league baseball players' careers. Minor league baseball players' expectations of reaching Major League Baseball impacted how they evaluated their work in the present, leading them to tolerate unfair pay and working conditions. We show that players' expectations of reaching Major League Baseball were moderately unrealistic, partly due to managerial practices encouraging unrealistic expectations. This study contributes to labor research by showing that future-oriented labor ideology is based on unrealistic expectations that employers can promote to create opportunities for future status coercion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pay fairness and human capital theories make different predictions about trainees' occupational turnover in situations where trainees perceive unfair pay but receive huge potential returns from training. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine how pay fairness and human capital investment combined to explain why trainees are motivated to persist in employment when they perceive unfair pay. Cross-sectional survey data from 144 minor league baseball players showed that athletes perceived unfair pay but had low occupational turnover intentions because they perceived high learning achievement and expected to play in Major League Baseball eventually. Perceptions of unfair pay only increased occupational turnover intentions under certain conditions, such as when athletes had low expectations of playing at least one game in Major League Baseball in the next 3 years. The results support a framework that combines human capital theory and pay fairness theories to explain boundary conditions for trainee motivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Business intelligence (BI) technologies can help firms optimize revenue and expenses if acquired and deployed proficiently. In parallel, the sport industry's shift toward digitization is being driven by an influx of new, technology-savvy owners and managers. It follows that owners who are business intelligence experts could make their sport organizations more profitable. This paper models 14 years of Major League Baseball data to explore the degree to which owners with business intelligence career experience affect their organization's operating margin through (a) optimizing revenue and (b) enhancing cost efficiency. It further explores owners' knowledge accrual as a moderator in this process. Results suggest the effect of business intelligence expertise on margins is positive, but small. Margin increases were attained by spending more efficiently on labor, not by generating more revenue. These mediating effects were moderated by knowledge accrual, such that a longer tenure increased the early-tenure advantages of BI career experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Athletes who are well prepared for the physical demands of competition are less susceptible to injury. Defining and then preparing athletes for these in-game demands is critical to athlete health and performance. The injury burden within Major League Baseball (MLB) is significant and differs by position. Despite its importance, the workload demands have not been described for position players in MLB. Hypothesis: That running demands would be significantly higher for outfielders, followed by infielders, and catchers, respectively, while batting and baserunning metrics would be similar across positions. Study Design: Cohort study. Level of Evidence: Level 3. Methods: Total and high-speed running distance (>75% Vmax), high-speed running count, hard accelerations (>2.78 m/s/s), defensive and baserunning minutes, total and hard throws (>75% max), and bat swing counts were calculated from Statcast data. Players with 100 games or more in the 2018 season (n = 126) were included for analysis. Results: All offensive and baserunning metrics were similar across positions; however, significant positional differences were observed for defensive and overall workload metrics. High-speed running was highest among outfielders (F 1,7 = 27.1, P < 0.01), followed by infielders, then catchers. Hard accelerations (F 1,7 = 12.9, P < 0.01) were highest among first basemen, then outfielders, remaining infielders, and catchers. Total throws (F 1,7 = 17.7, P < 0.01) were highest among middle infielders. Hard throws (P < 0.01) were highest among shortstops and third basemen. Conclusion: In-game workloads differ significantly by defensive position in MLB. These differences in running, throwing, and hitting volumes have significant implications for physical preparation and injury return-to-play progressions to optimize performance and minimize injury and reinjury risk for these athletes. Clinical Relevance: These data provide insight into how best to prepare athletes of different positions for the demands of the game both in terms of preseason preparation as well as return-to-play benchmarks following injury. These data should also serve as a platform for future research into the relationship between workload and injury among professional baseball players. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the time he retired in 1982 as executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) until 2019, the baseball establishment blacklisted Marvin Miller from the Baseball Hall of Fame. This article recounts how Miller, one of the most influential figures in baseball history, was excluded for so many years by the corporate‐backed plutocracy that runs the sport. The Hall of Fame's board of directors stacked the committees responsible for voting on candidates with owners and executives who despised Miller and the players union. It also reveals how and why he was eventually inducted in 2021. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses game-level Major League Baseball data to identify whether players with greater job security shirk in their preparation between games. Past work has identified evidence of moral hazard arising in multiyear Major League Baseball player contracts, but little work has been done in identifying when shirking takes place. Using a difference-in-differences estimation strategy, this study finds evidence of an inverse relationship between the number of years remaining on player contracts and performance when the player is playing on short rest, when opportunity to rest is scarce, but not on long rest. Using a triple-difference specification, evidence is found that this inverse relationship between years remaining on a player's contract when playing on short rest occurs for games played in "party cities." This evidence would suggest that between game preparation is one avenue through which players on multiyear contracts shirk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Major League Baseball's (MLB) unwritten rules and unspoken norms communicate the continuing role that white American cultural values have within the sport. Coded into the past and present, foreign-born players, especially those from Latin America, confront these norms as they arrive to MLB with a distinctly Caribbean tíguere style of play. MLB seeks to overcome these differences by promoting its young Latino superstars through the marketing campaign Let the Kids Play. However, all actors, from The Office of the Commissioner of Baseball to current players, must increase their cultural competency and uproot their essentialist viewpoints to understand that these players are not trying to show up their opponent, but are instead adhering to the style of play they themselves learned and know best. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses Major League Baseball data to examine the relationship between years remaining on player contracts and player performance. There is a potential for moral hazard to arise in this principal–agent relationship as the player may choose a less than optimal level of effort from the perspective of team management when the player has many guaranteed years remaining. A player fixed-effects estimation strategy, which finds a significant negative relationship between years remaining and performance, is employed. The primary contribution of this work is to show that this relationship is due to shirking. Alternative explanations for this relationship, such as teams signing improving players to multiyear contracts or players facing an adjustment process when joining a new team, are addressed. Additional evidence which is consistent with shirking behavior shows that shirking occurs on offense, not defense, and for position players, not pitchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The influence of player workload on hamstring and calf injuries in professional baseball players remains unknown. Hypothesis: Increased workload would significantly increase hamstring and calf strain injury risk. Study Design: Case-control. Level of Evidence: Level 3. Methods: All professional baseball players who sustained a hamstring or calf injury between 2011 and 2017 were identified using the Major League Baseball (MLB) Health and Injury Tracking System (HITS). A separate player usage dataset was used to determine workload. We then compared these variables between player games 2, 6, 12, and >12 weeks before a documented calf strain to player games from a noncalf injury control group. In a paired analysis, we compared the acute workload (2, 6, and 12 weeks) before injury with the injured player's workload >12 weeks before injury. Results: There were 175 unique calf strains (71% occurred in position players) and 1042 unique hamstring strains (97.8% occurred in position players) documented in the MLB HITS database from 2011 to 2017. In all time periods, position players with fewer days rest, more innings fielded, and more plate appearances were associated with a higher risk of subsequent hamstring and calf strains. Having only 1 day rest was associated with a 2.08-fold increase in percentage of players who sustained a subsequent calf strain compared with those with 4 days rest. Position players with >5 days of rest had a 4.03-fold decrease in percentage of players who sustained a hamstring strain compared with players with 1 day rest. Position players who fielded >9 innings per game had a 2.01-fold increase in percentage of players with a subsequent calf strain and a 3.68-fold increase in percentage of players who sustained a subsequent hamstring strain compared with players who only fielded 1 innings per game. Conclusion: Position players with fewer days rest, more innings fielded, and more plate appearance per game had an increased risk of sustaining a hamstring or calf injury. Clinical Relevance: Increased workload had a direct relationship with risk of hamstring and calf strains in professional baseball players. Teams should consider more days rest for position players to avoid calf injuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We offer a simple model of pitching and batting choices of Major League Baseball players and use game theory to investigate strategies for when a runner is on second base. We find that while a runner on second base can affect the outcome of the game, it does not fundamentally change the strategies of interaction between pitcher and batter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of financial markets have shown markets inefficiently underreacting to surprise information, discounting it too heavily in the short term. This paper explores this phenomenon in a new but analogous setting: Major League Baseball. I analyze how surprise information – the deviation between a team's realized win total and the preseason expectations of betting markets – is incorporated into the teams' personnel investments and into betting markets. Using fixed effect panel regressions, I find that higher win totals are associated with increased investment in the following season (as measured by team payroll and investment in free agents) and that, conditional on win totals, underperforming (overperforming) expectations in the prior season is associated with more (less) investment. This is consistent with teams discounting some of the surprise information. The effect is more pronounced for teams near the threshold of a playoff appearance. I find that some discounting is rational since roughly 27% of the gap between realized performance and expected performance does not persist into the following season. I find no evidence that betting markets are inefficient in their incorporation of surprise information. However, estimates suggest that teams significantly underreact to surprise information, an inefficiency analogous to those observed in financial markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study empirically examines the widespread belief that voluntarily negotiated agreements produce better long-run relationships than do third-party imposed resolutions, such as arbitrator decisions or court judgments. Major League Baseball provides a compelling setting for these analyses because individual performance is well measured, there is the possibility of relationship breakdown, and both voluntary and arbitrator-imposed resolutions routinely occur. Two key outcomes are analyzed: post-resolution player performance and the durability of the club–player relationship. Multivariate analyses of 1,424 salary renegotiations fail to find significant differences in subsequent player performance, but voluntary resolutions are associated with more durable post-resolution club–player relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior studies have investigated consumer-based economic discrimination from a number of contexts in the sport industry. This study seeks to further such a line of inquiry by examining consumer interest in Major League Baseball players on the Twitter platform, especially considering the emergence of social media at the forefront of consumer behavior research. Specifically, the analysis uses six regression models that take into account an array of factors, including player characteristics, performance, market size, and so forth. Results reveal that when controlling for all other factors, Hispanic players receive significantly less consumer interest on social media than their counterparts, while Asian pitchers receive more. These findings yield critical insights into tendencies of sport consumer biases on digital platforms, assisting the development of an equal and efficient sport marketplace for stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Study Design: A retrospective case series study.Objective: To analyze the epidemiology of diagnoses of degenerative cervical and lumbar spinal conditions among Major League Baseball (MLB) and Minor League Baseball (MiLB) players.Summary Of Background Data: Repetitive high-energy forces in professional baseball players may predispose them to degenerative cervical and lumbar spinal conditions. There is a lack of data concerning the epidemiology of these injuries in professional baseball.Methods: Deidentified data on spine injuries were collected from all MLB and MiLB teams from 2011 to 2016 from the MLB-commissioned Health and Injury Tracking System database. Rates of diagnoses of common degenerative spinal conditions as well as their impact on days missed due to injury, necessitation of surgery, and player participation and career-ending status were assessed. Injury rates were reported as injuries per 1000 athlete-exposures in concordance with prior studies.Results: Over 2011 to 2016, 4246 days of play were missed due to 172 spine-related injuries. 73.3% were related to the lumbar spine and 26.7% to the cervical spine. There were similar rates of surgery required for these injuries (18.3% of lumbar injuries vs. 13.0% of cervical injuries, P = 0.2164). Mean age of players with cervical injuries was higher compared with the lumbar group (27.5 vs. 25.4, P = 0.0119). Average number of days missed due to lumbar injuries was significantly higher than those due to cervical injuries (34.1 vs. 21.6 d, P = 0.0468). Spine injury rates for pitchers were significantly higher than those of other position players (0.086 per 1000 athlete-exposures vs. 0.037, P < 0.0001).Conclusion: Neurologic diagnoses relating to the cervical and lumbar spine lead to substantial disability among MLB and MiLB players as well as days missed from play. Pitchers have over double the rates of injury compared with other position players. Lumbar conditions were associated with significantly higher numbers of days missed from play.Level of Evidence: 4. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the author's views about how Major League Baseball (MLB) and the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) mishandled a cocaine abuse problem involving professional baseball players during the 1980s, and it mentions the drug policies that then-MLB commissioners Bowie Kuhn and Peter Ueberroth instituted during the 20th century. Invasion of privacy and mandatory urine analysis programs are assessed, along with self-diagnosed drug addiction.

After 30 years as a minor league baseball team affiliated with various Major League Baseball (MLB) teams, the Campton Hills Crushers were left without a league to play in when MLB removed the affiliations of 42 former minor league farm teams in the winter of 2020-21. Team management believed that they had four options for playing baseball in the 2021 season, including joining a well-established independent professional minor league, joining a well-established amateur summer collegiate league, starting their own in-house independent professional minor league with all teams playing out of Crusher Stadium, or starting their own in-house amateur summer collegiate league with all teams playing out of Crusher Stadium. Participants are asked to recommend one of the four scenarios to team management, based on utilizing a decision-making model that incorporates a pro/con analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]