Sports Studies Commons^™

Biogenesis, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

It is likely that Marvin Miller is spinning in his grave. Bud Selig may have achieved something that baseball owners have long wanted in their battle with the Major League Baseball Players Association. And that something would be a victory, or at least something resembling a victory, over the players.

Pac 12 Grand Canyon University, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

While waiting for the other shoe, or perhaps shoes, to drop in the anti-aging campaign by Major League Baseball, and noticing that Bud Selig is not getting any younger, it has suddenly hit me that college football is about to descend upon us with all the hypocrisy that it can muster. As a result crime reports in the sporting press will escalate, and there will be a new harvest of “Boys Gone Wild” videos as student-athletes begin their late summer season. One can only hope that “old school” football coaches do not retain “old school” training techniques that endanger the …

Do Mlb Hitters Boost Performance In Their Contract Year?, Heather M. O'Neill

Business and Economics Faculty Publications

This study focuses on 256 MLB free agent hitters playing under the 2006-2011 CBA to determine whether they boost their offensive performance in their contract year. Prior studies’ results are mixed, depending on the econometric technique used and the choice of the offensive performance measure.

Having multiple year observations per player, one can incorporate the unobserved traits of the players (ability, risk aversion, work ethic, etc.) by using Fixed Effects (FE) estimation. Since these unmeasured player traits are likely to be correlated with observed predictors of performance (games played, playoff contention, age, etc.), traditionally used Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and …

Do Major League Baseball Hitters Engage In Opportunistic Behavior?, Heather M. O'Neill

Business and Economics Faculty Publications

This study focuses on 256 Major League Baseball free agent hitters playing under the 2006–2011 collective bargaining agreement to determine whether players engage in opportunistic behavior in their contract year, i.e., the last year of their current guaranteed contracts. Past studies of professional baseball yield conflicting results depending on the econometric technique applied and choice of performance measure. When testing whether players’ offensive performances increase during their contract year, the omitted variable bias associated with OLS and pooled OLS estimation leads to contrary results compared to fixed effects modeling. Fixed effects regression results suggest players increase their offensive performance subject …

Surfing Injuries Requiring First Aid In New Zealand, 2007-2012, Kevin Moran, Jonathon Webber

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

In an island nation such as New Zealand with easy access to surf beaches, surfing activities are very popular and, while generally perceived as a healthy form of outdoor recreation, they do have attendant risks. This study reports on nondrowning, surfing-related incidents that required medical first aid on beaches during five summer seasons from 2007-2012. Retrospective descriptive analysis of data from lifeguard first aid reports found that 16% (n = 1,327) of injuries were the consequence of surfing activity. More males than females were treated for surfing injuries (68% male, 31% female). Lacerations (59%) and bruising (15%) accounted for most …

Perceived Impacts Of Hosting A College Baseball Regional Or Super Regional: Student Perspective At Possible Host Institution, Marcus Trent Ozbun

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

College athletics is an ever growing industry, particularly the sports of football and basketball. Previous research in college athletics has tended to focus only on these two sports and their economic impacts, disregarding any Social or general negative impacts they may bring with them. The purpose of this study was to develop a deeper understanding of students' perceptions of Social, economic and general negative impacts associated with hosting a NCAA baseball regional or super regional on the host campus and community. Hosting NCAA postseason events on campus is rare for many universities, so it is important to study how students …

Our Military Heroes, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

Over the last few years, with the Vietnam War fading into history and the military draft a thing of the past, the relationship between the general population of the United States and the U.S. Military has changed considerably. A conscious effort is now being made to honor American military personnel for the sacrifices they make on behalf of their country. This has long been needed and is a welcome development.

Murray, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

The words monumental, epic, unforgettable, and historic are thrown around with reckless abandon in our hyperbolic age that specializes in over-inflating the reality of mundane events. As a historian I am especially wary of the term “historic,” when describing a sports event. In the universe of high frequency television commentators, all of these words suffer from overuse.

Wimbledon, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

It has been some time since I have watched an entire tennis match. In point of fact my interest has drifted away from the sport. Somehow Wimbledon calls me back. The setting and tradition play a role, as does the fact that it is the only grand slam tournament I have ever seen in person.

A Profile Of The Characteristics And Professional Development Needs Of National Collegiate Athletic Association Division Ii Athletic Directors, Dustin Smith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose for conducting the study was to identify the personal, professional, and educational backgrounds of NCAA Division II athletic directors. The study was designed to detail the professional development opportunities that existed among the population, and determine how frequently the NCAA Division II athletic directors took advantage of the opportunities that were available to them. The significance of the study rested on the ability to identify the NCAA Division II athletic director population and describe the qualities and characteristics that comprised the target population. Since little data existed detailing this population, the study provided an opportunity to describe a …

Predicting Chest Press Strength From A 4rm Triceps Brachii Exercise In Trained Women, Krystina Nadia Moschella

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Determining maximal strength is important when developing a resistance exercise program for trained athletes. The most frequent strength procedure used to evaluate maximum strength is the 1RM test. However, risk of injury from a 1RM test increases for the athletes, therefore a 4RM test is used in the following study. The purpose of the study is to test whether there is a linear relationship between the bench press and the triceps rope extension exercise. A secondary purpose is the development of a prediction equation for the purpose of prescribing bench press exercise loads from triceps brachii loads using a 4RM …

Actual Vs. Perceived Value Of Players Of The National Basketball Association, Stephen Righini

Honors Projects in Mathematics

Over the past few decades the media has played an increasingly large role in shaping how player effectiveness in the National Basketball Association (NBA) is perceived. Several factors have caused fans, announcers, and even NBA team management to have unintentional bias toward certain players. This study aims to utilize various formulas created by NBA statisticians, called Player Raters, to identify how efficient each NBA player actually is in comparison to the rest of the league. Data from the past 12 seasons was compiled and six Player Raters were used to place values on every NBA player since the 2000-2001 season. …

Who Is The American League Mvp On A Per Dollar Basis?, Patrick Decker

Honors Projects in Mathematics

This study will look at the value of MLB players in the American League on a per dollar basis. It will be based on the 2011 statistics and will use a linear regression model to create a value for each player. The value will be based on a variety of statistics based upon position. For all players: age, team wins, and years in the league will be accounted for. For field players: games played, hits, runs, doubles, triples, home runs, runs batted in, walks, strike outs, stolen bases, on base percentage, slugging percentage, fielding percentage and errors will be accounted …

Amateurism In An Age Of Professionalism: An Empirical Examination Of An Irish Sporting Culture: The Gaa, Ian Keller, Angela Wright

Dept. of Organisation & Professional Development Publications

The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) has been synonymous with the sporting tradition of Ireland since 1884, and the links it has developed with the parishes and communities of Ireland have been based on the organization’s ethos of volunteerism and amateurism in Gaelic games. Modern Ireland has brought with it many challenges for the GAA, especially in relation to internal and external issues. The dynamic of sport in Ireland has changed with the introduction of professionalism in soccer and rugby, and this has caused the validity of the amateur status of the Gaelic Athletic Association to be questioned. The development of …

Too Much Puff, Not Enough Push? Surf Lifeguard Simulated Cpr Performance, Kevin Moran, Jonathon Webber

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

The purpose of this paper is to report on the technical competency of volunteer surf lifeguards to perform CPR on a manikin in light of their lifeguard experience, age, and gender. The CPR skills of surf lifeguards on patrol at the beginning of the 2010-11 summer season were tested on manikins by observation of CPR procedures and electronic recording of compression and ventilation skills. Almost all lifeguards (n=252) made the appropriate initial checks for responsiveness (98%). Compression skills were generally performed accurately with few technical errors (such as incomplete release). Most lifeguards (87%) over-ventilated the lungs (> 600ml) on each …

The Week That Was, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

Some may regard this as one of the strangest weeks ever in Sportsworld. Certainly the less than forthcoming appearance by Lance Armstrong with Oprah had some surrealistic qualities. After years, or even decades, of denial, Armstrong told America’s mother-confessor that, yes, he had indulged in all sorts of performance enhancement techniques to win his record seven Tour de France crowns. The fact that he had taken PED’s surprised no one, but the fact that he did a TV confessional- “bless me Oprah for I have sinned”- surprised a lot of people both in and out of the cycling community.

Baseball Hall Of Fame, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

The biggest problem and greatest injustice with the voting for the Baseball Hall of Fame was not revealed yesterday. It is a problem and injustice that goes back several years and multiple votes by various groups of voters.

Hockey, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

In my Florida neighborhood it was a quiet Saturday morning. In fact it was probably much the same across much of the United States. No one was in the streets celebrating. No one made comparisons to 1980 when the United States won the World Junior Hockey Championship in Ufa, a city of million or so in Central Russia.

Assessing The "Goodness Of Fit" Between Scholarly Assertions And Audience Interpretations Of Media Images Of Black Male Athletes, Emily J. Houghton

Human Performance Department Publications

The purpose of this study was to examine the "goodness of fit" in sport media research, specifically how audiences interpret media images of Black male athletes and the ways in which their interpretations "fit" with scholarly assertions pertaining to racially marked media depictions. Participants in the study (n=36) were part of eight focus groups segmented by age, gender and race. They viewed and discussed mainstream media images of Black male athletes found on major American sport media websites (ESPN.com and SI.com). The images corresponded with five categories of representation found in the literature: highly competent/natural athlete, exotic savage, deviant, emotionally …

Re-Theorizing The “Structure–Agency” Relationship: Figurational Theory, Organizational Change And The Gaelic Athletic Association, John Connolly, Paddy Dolan

Articles

This article illustrates how the figurational sociology associated with Norbert Elias provides an alternative theoretical framework for explaining the relationship between, ‘individualorganization- society’ and organizational change, and in so doing transverses what is conceived as a false dichotomy between structure and agency. Through an historical case study of the Gaelic Athletic Association in Ireland, the ‘individual-organization-society’ relationship is conceptualized as overlapping figurations and organizational change is explained as figurational dynamics—the shifting social interdependencies between the individuals and groups comprising an organization, between that organization and other organizations, between social groups on a higher level of integration and competition. In tandem …

Football Media Guide 2013, Indiana State University

Intercollegiate Athletics

No abstract provided.

Ua19/16/1 Cross Country / Track & Field Media Guide, Wku Athletic Media Relations

WKU Administration Documents

WKU track and field media guide for 2013-14 season.

Emotion And Memory In Nostalgia Sport Tourism: Examining The Attraction To Postmodern Ballparks Through An Interdisciplinary Lens, Kiernan O. Gordon

Kinesiology

Nostalgia sport tourism, one of Gibson’s (1998) three forms of sport tourism, appears to have received little scholarly attention in contrast to active sport tourism and event sport tourism (Fairley, 2003; Gibson, 2002, 2003; Ritchie & Adair, 2004). Despite this apparent lack of research relative to the other two domains, insightful and thought-provoking scholarship has emerged within nostalgia sport tourism. Sociology, which is one of sport tourism’s parent disciplines, has influenced much of this scholarship (Gibson, 2004; Harris, 2006). Among other things, this epistemological orientation has yielded the importance of emotion and memory to nostalgically oriented experiences. This paper considers …

League Structure & Stadium Rent Seeking - The Role Of Antitrust Revisited, David Haddock, Tonja Jacobi, Matthew Sag

Faculty Articles

Professional North American sporting teams receive enormous pub for new and renovated stadiums after threatening to depart their hometowns, or by actually moving elsewhere. In contrast, English sporting teams neither receive much public money for such projects, nor move towns. This Article argues that no inherent cultural or political transatlantic variations cause the differences; rather, it is the industrial organization of sports in the two countries-the structure of league control-that enables rent-seeking by American teams but not by their English counterparts. Cross-country time series data contrasting American professional football and baseball stadiums with English soccer grounds support our claim, as …

Baseball Media Guide 2013, Indiana State University

Intercollegiate Athletics

No abstract provided.

An Analysis Of The Contract Year Phenomenon In The Nba: Do Players Perform Better Or Worse, Tyler Gaffaney

CMC Senior Theses

The present study uses a novel measure of over performance (percent deviation from career average) to analyze the contract year phenomenon in the NBA. Historically, the literature has pointed toward over performance across almost all statistical measures of performance. However, previous research has assumed that all players are universally affected by the presence of a contract year in the same manner. The present study finds significant results that contradict previous research by dividing the sample of players into subgroups by age, career PER and position. Furthermore, the results of this paper’s statistical analysis illustrate the first examples of systematic underperformance …

Perceptions Of Leadership Styles And Job Satisfaction In A Sample Of High School Athletic Directors In The United States, Colin J. Turey

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The present study examined how athletic directors perceive their leadership roles in interscholastic athletics and the relationship of their leadership styles to their job satisfaction. The conceptual framework of this study was Bass and Avolio’s (1994) full range leadership model, also known as the transformational-transactional leadership model, which consists of 9 factors—5 transformational behaviors: idealized influence (attributed), idealized influence (behavior), inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration; 2 transactional behaviors: contingent reward and management-by-exception (active); 2 passive/avoidant behaviors: management-by-exception (passive) and laissez-faire. These 9 factors are measured by the Multi-Factor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ). The study was also informed by …

Bowl Survey, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

Over the next two days and nights ten bowl games will be played across the expanse of our great nation. At the end of the bowl season, culminating with the BCS Championship Game on January 7, thirty-five bowl games will have been played. The first, the Gildan New Mexico Bowl, took place on December 15.

College Sport, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

It’s been some time since I sat down and watched as much as a half of a college football game. Last fall I was in London, a city not infected by intercollegiate athletics, and this fall I simply never got enough time or interest to watch. Then a few weeks ago I did see several games. Florida and Florida State always draws my interest, and the Notre Dame run has been an interesting one.

Tags And Roger, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

Is there anyone out there who thought that Paul Tagliabue would overturn the player suspensions imposed by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in the New Orleans bounty case? Maybe someone somewhere had predicted this, but if they did they would be members of an extremely small club.