On the evolution of athlete anthropometric measurements: racial integration, expansion, and steroids

Abstract

We examine the temporal movements in three anthropometric measurements of a professional sport’s athlete population. Specifically, we examine unit root test results, traditional, nonlinear, and those that allow of possible structural breaks, for average player height, weight, and body mass index for the population of Major League Baseball athletes over the period 1901–2019. These anthropometric measures are likely associated with the athletes’ level of productivity. In the end, we find that the average values for the measures of players’ body mass index and weight are found to be nonstationary, while the average values of players’ height are stationary around a nonlinear trend. We further find that these series have been subject to a number of structural shocks. These shocks correspond to well-known events in Major League Baseball history, such as its ‘Deadball’ era, racial integration, periods of Major League Baseball expansion, innovations with respect to player management, the advent of free agency, and the so-called Steroid Era.