Baseball World Series Research Articles

We Are the World, We Are the Quake: the Redefinition of Fans as Interpretive Community in Sportswriting About the 1989 Bay Area World Series and Earthquake Disaster

This study provides a unique look at the confrontation of societal priorities about sport and life The study examines how the meaning of a sporting superevent changes in a community when it is confronted by a natural disaster such as a major earthquake. Press coverage of the 1989 baseball World Series played between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics is used as a case study to understand how sport is variantly placed into the context of everyday life as social conditions and interpretations of a disaster change A reader-oriented critique of press coverage focuses on the changing construction of the interpretive community ofsports fans during four phases (1) the pre-series period, (2) the pre-quake playing period, (3) the moratorium period, and the (4) the post-quake playing period. The often unrecognized struggles of the press to create interpretive communities of fans are most clearly seen in the context of this intervention of a natural disaster into the workings o f a n ongoing process of "naturalizing" sport into everyday life.

We Are the World, We Are the Quake: the Redefinition of Fans as Interpretive Community in Sportswriting About the 1989 Bay Area World Series and Earthquake Disaster

This study provides a unique look at the confrontation of societal priorities about sport and life. The study examines how the meaning of a sporting superevent changes in a community when it is confronted by a natural disaster such as a major earthquake. Press coverage of the 1989 baseball World Series played between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics is used as a case study to understand how sport is variantly placed into the context of everyday life as social conditions and interpretations of a disaster change. A reader-oriented critique of press coverage focuses on the changing construction of the interpretive community of sports fans during fourphases: (1) the pre-series period, (2) the pre-quake playing period, (3) the moratorium period, and the (4) the post-quake playing period. The often unrecognized struggles of the press to create interpretive communities of fans are most clearly seen in the context of this intervention of a natural disaster into the workings of an ongoing process of "naturalizing" sport into everyday life.

The Home Field Disadvantage in Sports Championships: Does It Exist in Hockey?

Popular belief in home field has persisted for many years in organized sports (Koppet, 1972). Recently this belief has received empirical support. Schwartz and Barsky (1977) found the home team winning 53% of the time in professional baseball, 60% in professional football, 64% in professional ice hockey, and 64% in college basketball. Edwards (1979) found the home team winning 54.4% of the time in professional football, 58.6% in college football, and 55.6% in professional baseball. Varca (1980) found the home team winning 70% of the time in college basketball. Thus, through statistical analysis, all of these studies confirm the popular belief in the home court advantage. Although these studies consistently support a home field advantage, Baumeister and Steinhilber (1984) have recently reported that under certain conditions the home field may be disadvantageous. Specifically, they hypothesized that the imminent opportunity of winning a major championship in front of a supportive audience would lead to a paradoxical decrement in performance. This was expected to be the result of self-presentational concerns that interfere with the execution of skillful responses. An analysis of archival data from championship playoffs in professional baseball and basketball supported their reasoning. Comparing home-win percentages of the first 2 games of the baseball world series with the last game during the period 1924 to 1982, Baumeister and Steinhilber found the home team winning 60% of the time in games 1 and 2 but only 40% of the time in the last game, whether the last game was game 5, 6, or 7. When the analysis was restricted to defining game 7 as the decisive game, a similar reversal of the home team advantage was apparent. Similarly, using National Basketball Association championship series between 1967 and 1982, they found the home team winning 70% of the time in games 1 through 4 but only 46% of the time in the last game, whether it was game 5 ,6 , or 7. When the analysis was restricted to the 13 series that lasted all seven games, a similar reversal of the home team advantage was apparent.

Paradoxical effects of supportive audiences on performance under pressure: The home field disadvantage in sports championships.

On the basis of recent research on self-presentation and self-attention, we predicted that the presence of supportive audiences might be detrimental to performance in some circumstances. Specifically, the imminent opportunity to claim a desired identity in front of a supportive audience might engender a state of self-attentio n that could interfere with the execution of skillful responses. Archival data from championship series in two major league sports supported this reasoning. In baseball's World Series, home teams tend to win early games but lose decisive (final) games. Supplementary analyses suggested that the pattern occurs when the home team has the opportunity to win the championship and that it does involve performance decrements by the home team. Similar patterns were found in semifinal and championship series in professional basketball. The present study concerns whether the presence of supportive versus unsympathetic audiences could interact with opportunities for claiming desired identities to cause paradoxical decrements in the quality of performance. Researchers of self-presentation have used terms such as audience and performance to describe self-presentation ever since Goffman's (1959) dramaturgical analysis of behavior. Our study seeks to test self-presentational hypotheses in the context of actual professional performers and their audiences. We chose professional athletic contests because they provide circumscribed, quantifiable performances and because careful records are generally kept. Our hypotheses were derived by the three steps that follow.