Impacts of Performance-Enhancing Drug Suspensions on the Demand for Major League Baseball

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 391-419
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Cisyk
Keyword(s):  
Adverse Reaction ◽  
Natural Experiment ◽  
Major League Baseball ◽  
Major League ◽  
Performance Enhancing Drugs ◽  
Television Audience ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Audience Size ◽  
Performance Enhancing

In 2005, Major League Baseball (MLB) introduced a new policy regarding the use of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) wherein the league would not only suspend but also publicly name any player who tested positive for banned PEDs. Using the estimated television audience size of MLB games from 2006 to 2012, these PED suspension announcements provide a unique natural experiment to test how consumers react to news of PED use. This study finds that PED announcements have two major impacts on the demand for baseball. First, there is on average an immediate 9.3% reduction in the television audience of the PED player’s team. Second, the magnitude of the effect gradually decreases over time yet remains negative and significant for a period of 37 days or approximately 33 game-broadcasts. This is the first study to link PED use to an adverse reaction by consumers in a systematic way using television audience while controlling for the change in team quality caused by removing the suspended player from the team.

Epilogue

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan Michael Corzine
Keyword(s):  
Drug Use ◽  
Alcohol Abuse ◽  
Major League Baseball ◽  
Major League ◽  
Direct Corollary ◽  
History Of ◽  
Performance Enhancing Drugs ◽  
Drug And Alcohol ◽  
Performance Enhancing

This epilogue reflects on the history of drug and alcohol abuse in baseball, first by recounting the story of Seattle Mariners shortstop Alex Rodriguez. Known as A-Rod, Rodriguez has become the most recognizable face in baseball with regards to the use of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs)—possibly in all of sports. In the wake of the Mitchell Report findings, Rodriguez adamantly proclaimed his innocence when he was connected with PED use, later admitted that he lied about his past drug abuses, and then doubled down on the denials when indicted yet again, this time for transgressions related to the 2013 doping scandal involving Biogenesis of America. On January 11, 2014, Rodriguez, after a lengthy period of arbitration, was formally suspended for 162 games—at that point the longest non-lifetime suspension in Major League Baseball (MLB) history. This epilogue considers some of the reasons why people are so bothered by the use of PEDs in baseball and suggests that drug use in baseball could be ascribed as a direct corollary to the American obsession with winning.

Does It Pay to Be Unethical? The Case of Performance Enhancing Drugs in Mlb

2011 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 58-68
Author(s):  
Louis J. Pantuosco
Keyword(s):  
Regression Analysis ◽  
Competitive Advantage ◽  
Positive Relationship ◽  
Major League Baseball ◽  
Marginal Benefit ◽  
Marginal Costs ◽  
Major League ◽  
Performance Enhancing Drugs ◽  
Specific Impact ◽  
Performance Enhancing

The question of “does it pay to be unethical?” is investigated within the framework of Major League Baseball (MLB). The issue of gaining a competitive advantage by operating outside of the rules is first addressed from a marginal benefit and marginal costs perspective. Then, using career data compiled in the 2005 season, regression analysis is performed to estimate the affect of steroids on player salaries. The analysis focuses on whether players are encouraged financially to consume performance enhancing drugs (PEDs). The results reveal a positive relationship between PEDs and salaries. While this result is interesting, the interpretation of the PEDs' specific impact on salaries is difficult to estimate. In separate regressions, slugging average and PEDs were positively correlated, as were PEDs and allstar appearance. With these benefits in mind, it is no wonder why unmonitored players engaged in the steroid epidemic in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Explaining Game-to-Game Ticket Sales for Major League Baseball Games Over Time

2011 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 536-553 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elise M. Beckman ◽  
Wenqiang Cai ◽  
Rebecca M. Esrock ◽  
Robert J. Lemke
Keyword(s):  
Major League Baseball ◽  
Ticket Sales ◽  
Home Team ◽  
Major League ◽  
Potential Factors ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Uncertainty Of Outcome ◽  
Over Time

Using data from more than 10,000 games from 1985 through 2009, the authors estimate the effect various factors have on attendance at Major League Baseball (MLB) games. As previously found in the literature, interleague and interleague rivalry contests are associated with higher attendances, but this relationship has been weakening over time. Contrary to some of the literature, the authors find that the likelihood the home team will win the contest is inconsistently estimated over time, lending little support for the uncertainty of outcome hypothesis. Generally the effect on ticket sales from many potential factors has generally been weakening over time.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan Michael Corzine
Keyword(s):  
Drug Testing ◽  
Major League Baseball ◽  
Drug Prevention ◽  
Baseball Players ◽  
Congressional Hearings ◽  
Major League ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Performance Enhancing Drugs ◽  
Drug And Alcohol

This book charts the history of drug and alcohol use in Major League Baseball (MLB). It aims to recover the story of baseball and drugs from the tyranny of baseball mythology by analyzing the perceived problem of drug use, with particular emphasis on illegal recreational and performance-enhancing drugs, in MLB. It examines how the drug testing movement, for two decades the persona non grata of professional baseball, surged to the forefront of Major League thought following the congressional hearings of 2005, culminating in the 2006 establishment of the Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program between the league and the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA). The new testing protocols were buoyed by the findings of the Mitchell Report, which explicitly warned against retroactive punishment—the league could not slash and burn its way to integrity by torching past transgressions—and instead focused on the need for diligence in the future.

Baseball Home Field Advantage Without Fans in the Stands

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy Losak ◽  
Joseph Sabel
Keyword(s):  
Market Efficiency ◽  
Natural Experiment ◽  
Major League Baseball ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Significant Evidence ◽  
Home Team ◽  
Home Field Advantage ◽  
Major League ◽  
Betting Markets ◽  
Home Conditions

Home field advantage is universally accepted across most major sports and levels of competition. However, exact causes of home field advantage have been difficult to disentangle. The COVID-19 pandemic offers a unique, natural experiment to isolate elements related to home field advantage since all 2020 regular season Major League Baseball games were played without fans. Results provide no statistically significant evidence of a difference in home field advantage between the 2019 and 2020 seasons, evidence that home crowd support is not a driver of home field advantage. There does appear to be a statistical advantage by the home team batting second in the inning. Travel fatigue seems to have no impact on home field advantage, and while home field advantage seems to increase throughout the 2020 season, we chalk that up to small sample noise. Despite lacking historical precedence, betting markets seemingly respond efficiently to the new home conditions. Keywords: home field advantage, market efficiency, baseball, ghost games

scholarly journals Cracking the WHIP: An Evaluation of Baseball’s Hall of Fame Pitchers

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan Cahill ◽  
John Brady ◽  
Alexander Winch ◽  
Ryan Ashe ◽  
Paul Martin Sommers
Keyword(s):  
Major League Baseball ◽  
Significant Trend ◽  
Performance Metric ◽  
Major League ◽  
Hall Of Fame ◽  
Over Time

Walks plus hits per inning pitched (WHIP) is a key performance metric for pitchers in Major League Baseball (MLB).  The authors analyze WHIP and its two components, walks and hits, to determine whether Hall of Fame pitcher performance has changed over time since the Hall of Fame’s first induction in 1936.  All inducted pitchers are divided into four roughly equal groups.  The results reveal that pitchers inducted between 1936 and 1959 gave up significantly fewer walks per inning pitched while pitchers inducted between 1960 and 1979 gave up significantly more hits per inning pitched.  However, in general, WHIP displays no statistically significant trend over time, as the small number of walks per inning pitched among early inductees is offset by a large number of hits given up per inning pitched among later inductees.  

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