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The role of physical and psychological skills as predictors of performance and survival in professional baseball was studied in a sample of 104 minor league baseball players. Psychological and physical skills were largely uncorrelated with one another and appear to be measuring separate and independent skill domains. Preseason scores on the Athletic Coping Skills Inventory (ACSI-28) and coaches’/managers’ ratings of the same skills on an ACSI Rating Form each accounted for as much performance variance in batting average (approximately 20%) as did physical skills when differences in the latter were statistically controlled, and the psychological measures accounted for substantially more variance in pitchers’ earned run averages than did the expert ratings of physical skills. The psychological skills measures also predicted athletes’ survival in professional baseball 2 and 3 years after they were obtained. Bayesian hit rate anlayses indicated substantially increased survival predictability over simple base rate predictions.

Our understanding of the role of tactical knowledge in baseball batting preparation is scarce, thereby limiting training guidelines. We examined the verbal reports of baseball players and nonplayers when told to view different edited video sequences of a half-inning of baseball competition under different task conditions: to prepare to bat (problem solve); recall as much information as possible (intentional recall); or prepare to bat, with an unexpected recall (incidental recall). Separate mixed-model ANOVAs (Expertise X Instruction conditions) on verbal report measures indicated that nonplayers used general strategies for recalling baseball events and lacked the tactical skills to use such information for their upcoming times at bat. In contrast, players used baseball-specific strategies to encode and retrieve pertinent game events from long-term memory (LTM) to develop tactics for their upcoming times at bat and to recall as much information as possible. Recommendations for training tactical skills are presented as some players exhibited defciencies in the LTM structures that mediate batting decisions.

The study was concerned with empirically confirming the proposed classification of the performance measures in baseball into tertiary, secondary, and primary measures based on their proximity to skill execution and task performance and with the extent to which these measures were contaminated by external factors. The data consisted of various performance measures derived from the box scores of games played by 10 teams from the National Collegiate Athletic Association during the 1988 season (N=381 games). For confirmatory purposes» the total sample was subdivided into home and away samples (N=762 observations). The results of correlational and regression analyses supported the proposition that the secondary measures would be more closely related to the tertiary measures than would the primary measures. Further» ran differential was the superior tertiary measure relative to win/loss and ratio of final score in reflecting skill execution and task performance. Practical applications of the model and directions for future research are then discussed.

This study examined baseball players' conceptions of umpires' authority. Eighty male players, ages 6-22 years, completed an abbreviated Inventory of Piaget's Developmental Tasks (Furth, 1970), which was used to measure cognitive development. They then heard recorded scenarios describing conflicts with an umpire and a parent. Players indicated if they would argue with the authorities, why they obey the authorities (obedience), and why the authorities get to make decisions (legitimacy). Obedience and legitimacy responses were categorized into Damon's (1977) three levels. Measures of arguing, obedience, and legitimacy were analyzed for four age levels and three levels of cognitive development. Older and more cognitively developed players were more likely to argue with authorities. Conceptions of obedience and legitimacy were positively associated with age, though they were not related to scores of cognitive development. The positive relationship between age and authority conceptions and the absence of a relationship between cognitive development and authority conceptions are both consistent with Damon's position.

Research on the effects of extrinsic rewards on subsequent levels of intrinsic motivation and performance has produced conflicting results. In the present study, player statistics were obtained on 33 major league baseball free agents for two seasons prior to, and two seasons after, the signing of the contract. Results suggest that the new contract, particularly its substantial pay raise, caused a decrease in immediate postcontract performance. In addition, there was some evidence that performance output recovered to its precontract level in the second season postcontract. Findings are discussed with respect to previous work on intrinsic to extrinsic motivational shifts and the overjustification effect.

This study investigated the use of normative rules by baseball umpires. Normative rales are informal standards of conduct that deviate from the official rules of sport. Sixteen umpires, 25 coaches, and 27 baseball players defined the official upper and lower boundaries of the strike zone, marked these official boundaries on a Strike Zone Form, and marked where they actually call, or believe umpires call, the boundaries. Umpires were significantly more knowledgeable about rales than players were. Umpires reported setting the upper boundary of the strike zone significantly lower (an average of 2.64 inches) than the official rule specifies. Coaches and players reported that umpires lower the boundaries, but players overestimated how much umpires deviate from the rule-book boundaries. Results suggest that umpires consciously violate official rules. The ethical implications of these findings are discussed.

Using path analytic techniques, the causal relationships in Bandura's model of self-efficacy were examined in a field setting. Male intercollegiate and interscholastic baseball players (N = 53) completed self-report measures over a nine-game period during the baseball season. Perceptions of self-efficacy, competitive state anxiety, effort expenditure, and objective hitting performance were measured. Moderate support for Bandura's model was found in that higher performances predicted stronger percepts of efficacy in six games, and lower levels of somatic and cognitive anxiety were associated with stronger self-efficacy beliefs in seven games. In turn, stronger self-efficacy predicted greater effort in six games and higher hitting performance in five games. Results are discussed in relation to the ecological validity of previous causal examinations of self-efficacy theory, as well as the utility of self-efficacy theory as a framework for investigating the self-confidence-performance relationship.

This study addressed the question, what should baseball players focus their attention on while batting? Less-skilled and highly skilled (college) baseball players participated in four dual-task conditions in a baseball batting simulation: two that directed attention to skill execution (skill/internal [movement of the hands] and skill/external [movement of the bat]) and two that directed attention to the environment (environmental/irrelevant [auditory tones] and environmental/external [the ball leaving the bat]). Batting performance for highly skilled players was best in the environmental/external condition and worst in the skill/internal condition. Performance of less-skilled batters was significantly better in the two skill conditions than in either of the two environmental conditions. We conclude that the optimal focus of attention for highly skilled batters is one that does not disrupt proceduralized knowledge and permits attention to the perceptual effect of the action, whereas the optimal focus of attention for less-skilled batters is one that allows attention to the step-by-step execution of the swing.