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Published on: April 18, 2019
Hitting is contagious in baseball: evidence from long hitting streaks
Joel R Bock1, Akhilesh Maewal, David A Gough
1Scalaton, La Mesa, CA, USA. sauerkraut@gmail.com
Plos One
|December 20, 2012
Summary
This study investigated if "hitting is contagious" in baseball. Analysis revealed that teammates of a player on a hitting streak showed statistically significant improvements in their own batting performance.
Area of Science:
- Sports Analytics
- Statistical Modeling
- Behavioral Economics
Background:
- The phenomenon of
- The concept of
- Investigating team dynamics in sports performance.
Purpose of the Study:
- To statistically test the hypothesis that hitting performance is contagious among baseball players.
- To quantify the impact of a 'hot hitter' on teammates' batting statistics.
- To explore potential psychological mechanisms behind observed performance changes.
Main Methods:
- Compiled extensive box score data from multiple baseball seasons.
- Developed a statistical model to analyze streaks and player performance.
- Employed the percentile bootstrap method for confidence interval calculations to compare treatment and control groups.
Main Results:
- Players batting alongside a 'hot hitter' demonstrated statistically significant improvements in hitting.
- Key metrics like batting average and a novel 'batting heat index' showed notable increases.
- The null hypothesis was rejected across all performance statistics at a 0.05 significance level.
Conclusions:
- Evidence suggests a potential 'statistical contagion effect' in baseball hitting performance.
- Psychological factors and latent variables may contribute to these contagious phenomena.
- Further research is recommended to establish causality and explore contributing factors.
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