IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v20y2022i1p542-d1018503.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Air Quality Is Predictive of Mistakes in Professional Baseball and American Football

Author

Listed:
  • Elizabeth C. Heintz

    (School of Kinesiology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA)

  • Derek P. Scott

    (School of Kinesiology, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, LA 70504, USA)

  • Kolby R. Simms

    (School of Kinesiology, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, LA 70504, USA)

  • Jeremy J. Foreman

    (School of Kinesiology, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, LA 70504, USA)

Abstract

Air quality is a growing environmental concern that has implications for human physical and mental health. While air pollution has been linked to cognitive disease progression and declines in overall health, the impacts of air quality on athletic performance have not been extensively investigated. Much of the previous research focused on endurance sports indicates that air quality negatively impacts athletic performance; however, the effects of air quality on non-endurance elite team performance remains largely unknown. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of air quality on errors committed by Major League Baseball (MLB) teams, interceptions thrown by quarterbacks in the National Football League (NFL), and overall quarterback performance in the NFL. Linear regression analysis was used to determine the impact of the median air quality index (AQI) of counties with MLB and NFL teams on errors, interceptions, and overall quarterback performance of players on those MLB and NFL teams. AQI was a significant positive predictor of errors and interceptions, indicating increased errors and interceptions with decreased air quality. Similarly, quarterback performance was significantly reduced for quarterbacks from teams in counties with worse air quality. These findings suggest that air quality has a significant impact on performance in the MLB and NFL, indicating impairments in physical and cognitive performance in professional athletes when competing in areas with poorer air quality. Hence, it is likely that air quality impacts athletic performance in numerous sports that have not yet been investigated.

Suggested Citation

  • Elizabeth C. Heintz & Derek P. Scott & Kolby R. Simms & Jeremy J. Foreman, 2022. "Air Quality Is Predictive of Mistakes in Professional Baseball and American Football," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-11, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2022:i:1:p:542-:d:1018503
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/1/542/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/1/542/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kim, Younoh & Knowles, Scott & Manley, James & Radoias, Vlad, 2017. "Long-run health consequences of air pollution: Evidence from Indonesia's forest fires of 1997," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 186-198.
    2. Frederick Wiseman & Sangit Chatterjee, 2003. "Team payroll and team performance in major league baseball: 1985-2002," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 1(2), pages 1-10.
    3. Audas, Rick & Dobson, Stephen & Goddard, John, 2002. "The impact of managerial change on team performance in professional sports," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 54(6), pages 633-650.
    4. Yu Qin & Jing Wu & Rongjie Zhang, 2022. "Can Professional Football Players Adapt to Air Pollution? Evidence From China," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 23(3), pages 277-300, April.
    5. Changjing Zhou & William G. Hopkins & Wanli Mao & Alberto L. Calvo & Hongyou Liu, 2019. "Match Performance of Soccer Teams in the Chinese Super League—Effects of Situational and Environmental Factors," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(21), pages 1-13, November.
    6. John D. Burger & Stephen J. K. Walters, 2003. "Market Size, Pay, and Performance," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 4(2), pages 108-125, May.
    7. Younoh Kim & Vlad Radoias, 2022. "Severe Air Pollution Exposure and Long-Term Health Outcomes," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(21), pages 1-8, October.
    8. Michał Zacharko & Robert Cichowicz & Marcin Andrzejewski & Paweł Chmura & Edward Kowalczuk & Jan Chmura & Marek Konefał, 2021. "Air Pollutants Reduce the Physical Activity of Professional Soccer Players," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(24), pages 1-10, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Carlo Bellavite Pellegrini & Raul Caruso & Marco Di Domizio, 2021. "Relative wages, payroll structure and performance in soccer. Evidence from Italian Serie A (2007-2019)," DISCE - Quaderni del Dipartimento di Politica Economica dipe0015, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    2. Na Tang & Maoxiang Yuan & Zhijun Chen & Jian Ma & Rui Sun & Yide Yang & Quanyuan He & Xiaowei Guo & Shixiong Hu & Junhua Zhou, 2023. "Machine Learning Prediction Model of Tuberculosis Incidence Based on Meteorological Factors and Air Pollutants," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(5), pages 1-17, February.
    3. Marco Di Domizio & Carlo Bellavite Pellegrini & Raul Caruso, 2022. "Payroll dispersion and performance in soccer: A seasonal perspective analysis for Italian Serie A (2007–2021)," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 40(3), pages 513-525, July.
    4. Jye-Shyan Wang & Chih-Fu Cheng & Wen-Jhan Jane, 2014. "Buying success or redistributing payment: bidirectional causality in Korean Professional Baseball League," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 4(2), pages 247-260, December.
    5. Wei, Xiahai & Li, Jianan & Liu, Hongyou & Wan, Jiangtao, 2023. "Temperature and outdoor productivity: Evidence from professional soccer players," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    6. Caruso, Raul & Carlo, Bellavite Pellegrini & Marco, Di Domizio, 2016. "Does diversity in the payroll affect soccer teams’ performance? Evidence from the Italian Serie A," MPRA Paper 75644, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Sanchez Santos Jose Manuel & Dopico Jesús & Castellanos Pablo, 2012. "Playing Success and Local Market Size in Spanish Football League: Can Small Cities Dream of Winning Teams?," Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports, De Gruyter, vol. 8(2), pages 1-23, June.
    8. Singh, Damini & Gupta, Indrani & Roy, Arjun, 2023. "The association of asthma and air pollution: Evidence from India," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    9. Yiwen Xu & Ying Wang & Yang Yang, 2024. "The Impact of Air Pollution on Game Outcome," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 25(5), pages 557-582, June.
    10. Chang, Yuan-Chieh & Chen, Min-Nan, 2016. "Service regime and innovation clusters: An empirical study from service firms in Taiwan," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(9), pages 1845-1857.
    11. Anne-Line Balduck & Anita Prinzie & Marc Buelens, 2010. "The effectiveness of coach turnover and the effect on home team advantage, team quality and team ranking," Journal of Applied Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(4), pages 679-689.
    12. Frick, Bernd & Barros, Carlos Pestana & Prinz, Joachim, 2010. "Analysing head coach dismissals in the German "Bundesliga" with a mixed logit approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 200(1), pages 151-159, January.
    13. Aniruddha Dutta, 2019. "Capacity Allocation of Game Tickets Using Dynamic Pricing," Data, MDPI, vol. 4(4), pages 1-12, October.
    14. Süssmuth Bernd & Wagner Stefan, 2012. "A Market’s Reward Scheme, Media Attention, and the Transitory Success of Managerial Change," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 232(3), pages 258-278, June.
    15. repec:lan:wpaper:3983 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Antonio Samagaio & Eduardo Couto & Jorge Caiado, 2009. "Sporting, financial and stock market performance in English football: an empirical analysis of structural relationships," CEMAPRE Working Papers 0906, Centre for Applied Mathematics and Economics (CEMAPRE), School of Economics and Management (ISEG), Technical University of Lisbon.
    17. Costanza Torricelli & Maria Cesira Urzì Brancati & Luca Mirtoleni, 2014. "The impact of skill and management structure on Serie A Clubs’ performance," Centro Studi di Banca e Finanza (CEFIN) (Center for Studies in Banking and Finance) 14107, Universita di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Dipartimento di Economia "Marco Biagi".
    18. Gerd Muehlheusser & Sandra Schneemann & Dirk Sliwka & Niklas Wallmeier, 2018. "The Contribution of Managers to Organizational Success," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 19(6), pages 786-819, August.
    19. Li, Zhengtao & Hu, Bin, 2018. "Perceived health risk, environmental knowledge, and contingent valuation for improving air quality: New evidence from the Jinchuan mining area in China," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 54-68.
    20. repec:lan:wpaper:3702 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Joshua M. Congdon-Hohman & Jonathan A. Lanning, 2018. "Beyond Moneyball," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 19(7), pages 1046-1061, October.
    22. Claudio Detotto & Dimitri Paolini & J. D. Tena, 2018. "Do managerial skills matter? An analysis of the impact of managerial features on performance for Italian football," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 69(2), pages 270-282, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2022:i:1:p:542-:d:1018503. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.