Posted on 03/28/2024 4:41:07 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
The Phillies and the Atlanta Braves reputedly are among the elite teams of major-league baseball, but if the quality of play at Citizens Bank Park during their season-opening series doesn’t quite measure up to expectations, go gentle on the booing.
These players are experiencing a form of abrupt climate change, says Struan Coleman, a sports medicine specialist who practices in New York and Philly.
When the Phillies left Clearwater, Fla., after their final spring training game Monday, the high was 83 degrees, and daily highs since the team began playing their practice games in Florida on Feb. 25 have averaged about 80.
By contrast, when the teams take the field Friday, after Thursday’s rainout, the air temperatures will be in the mid-50s, with the air holding well less than half the moisture of those spring-training sites.
One comprehensive study documented that such a degree of coolness can affect the quality of play. The early season can be particularly challenging for hitters. “It’s more about the cold rather than the rustiness,” study co-author Brandon Koch, a statistics professor at the University of Minnesota, said Tuesday.
While temperature may benefit pitchers, cold may have had a downside for their control: They issued more walks when it was chilly.
“Climate in baseball is incredibly important,” said Coleman, who practices at the Vincera Institute in Philadelphia, “and something that should be looked at and discussed more carefully.” He added that he would like to interest the Phillies in an analysis of the relationship of weather and sports injuries.
(Excerpt) Read more at inquirer.com ...
Conveniently, no mention is made of the “Ice Bowl” or below freezing temps during the pro football season. Would bust the narrative.
The climate has been changing since the world began. It’s just now the gummit has found a way to scare people with it.
Right? We need to equalize weather....
It is hard to believe there are so many people this crazy.
Gee, my standard of living has been going down. All this time I thought it was the Democrats’ fault when it was really climate change.
Also there’s an extra round of playoffs at the end of the season.
Back when the MLB had 24 (or 26?) teams they did try starting the season in warm weather sites one year.
The schedule did work out nicer though if they did one circuit of the division, one circuit of the opposite division, one circuit of the division, one circuit of the opposite division, and close out the season with one circuit of the division.
When the AL went to 14 teams one team had to play the opposite division during each mini-circuit.
I am old enough to remember when there were no playoffs, the team in each league with the best record played in the World Series.
I think the first-year playoffs started was 1969 when the Met and Braves played each other in the NL.
For sure. We need weather justice.
The media can’t even keep their propaganda out of their sports reporting.
Yeah, no dugout AC’s fans and Gatorade
Baseball is unique among the major sports because so many teams in the northern and colder cities spend several weeks training and working on their tans in warm climates and then open the season in places like, say, Philadelphia, in late March.
This is some of the dumbest 'journalism' is ever read.
Such OVERT lies and propaganda.
One, they start the season almost two weeks earlier now.
For example, first Phillies game, 1959: April 10, 1959
Two even starting in April there were cold days.
First Phillies game 1979, April 6, 1979 40° In St. Louis
this is just so stupid on so many levels.
i have seen it snow on opening day in years past, in detroit, millwalkie, rain in san diego and los angeles it happens its spring
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