Baseball Hitting, Pitching Sapped by Jet Lag by Associated Press on 01.27.17 Word Count 691

Caught napping: Baseball hitting, pitching sapped by jet lag By Associated Press on 01.27.17 Word Count 691

Taylor Teagarden of the United States connects for a hit against Canada during their baseball game at the Wukesong Baseball Field on Day 8 of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games on August 16, 2008. Julian Finney/Getty Image

Researchers say they've documented an unseen drag on major league baseball players that can wipe out home ﬁeld advantage, make pitchers give up more home runs and take some punch out of a team's bats.

The culprit: jet lag.

Travelers are well aware of the fatigue, poor sleep and other effects that can descend like a fog when their body clocks are out of sync with their surroundings. The new work adds to previous suggestions that professional athletes are no different.

Dr. Ravi Allada of Northwestern University said he and his colleagues wanted to study the effects of body clock disruptions on human performance. So they chose baseball, a game with plenty of performance measures gathered from hundreds of games a year, played by people who get little chance to settle in to new time zones when they travel.

This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. 1 They looked for jet lag's effects by analyzing 20 years' worth of Major League Baseball data. They found 4,919 instances of a team taking the ﬁeld after crossing two or three time zones but without enough time to adjust. People generally need a day of adjustment for each time zone crossed.

Their analysis was released Monday by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Results of the new study generally showed that traveling eastward was more disruptive than going west, a known feature of jet lag. A surprise, though, was that home teams seemed to suffer its effects more than visiting teams did.

Among the ﬁndings:

— Over all the games in the 20 years, teams won about 54 percent of games played at home, showing a home ﬁeld advantage of 4 percent. But that edge was obliterated when home teams that were jet-lagged from traveling eastward played teams with no apparent jet lag — an apparent result of seemingly small declines in performance.

— After traveling eastward, jet-lagged home teams hit fewer doubles and triples, stole fewer bases and grounded into more double plays than when they weren't affected. The impact on doubles was about one fewer per every seven games, while the other effects were smaller.

— Eastward travel was linked to pitchers allowing more home runs, both at home and away. The difference came to roughly one home run every 10 games.

The researchers suggested starting pitchers might get time to overcome jet lag if they were sent a few days ahead of the team to distant away games. Many teams send them ahead now on long ﬂights, but it's usually only a few hours early, to avoid overnight travel.

The researchers said they had no explanation for why teams were more hampered by jet lag at home than when they played elsewhere. Maybe that reﬂects some protection from a more structured daily schedule on the road than at home, they suggested.

That's a reasonable idea, said Dr. W. Chris Winter, a Virginia sleep specialist who consults with several major league teams.

Winter, who has published research on how jet lag affects baseball teams but had no role in the new study, said the ﬁndings moved beyond simply documenting an effect on overall team performance toward learning more about it.

Ballplayers know jet lag is a problem, and have recently taken steps to ease the burden of their schedules. The Major League Baseball Players Association, concerned about fatigue, negotiated several changes in scheduling rules starting in 2018. For example, each team's 162-game regular season schedule will be played over 187 days, up from 183. And there will be new rules on scheduling games, taking into account the timing of consecutive games.

This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. 2 What difference can jet lag make? Allada pointed to the National League Championship Series last October.

Los Angeles Dodgers pitching star Clayton Kershaw shut out the Chicago Cubs when he pitched against them in the Windy City, Allada noted. But when Kershaw returned from Los Angeles to face them again, the Cubs hit him hard, including two home runs.

"I can't attribute it all to jet lag," Allada said, but the study suggests the eastward trip might have played a role.

It's speculative and just one example, he said. But it's relevant "to those of us who are Chicago Cubs fans."

This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. 3 Quiz

1 What are the two central ideas of the article?

1. A new study indicates that baseball players' performance is negatively affected by jet lag. 2. The new study was released by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 3. Scientists suggest that teams should allow pitchers to travel sooner and get more rest to alleviate problems from jet lag. 4. Traveling eastward has more of a negative effect on the human body.

(A) 1 and 2

(B) 1 and 3

(D) 3 and 4

2 Read the last ﬁve paragraphs of the article.

Which paragraph BEST reﬂects the central idea that baseball players are taking actions to avoid the problems associated with jet lag?

3 What is the meaning of the phrase "unseen drag" as used in the following sentence?

(A) exposed issue

(B) covert solution

(D) obvious complication

This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. 4 4 Read the sentence from the article.

Ballplayers know jet lag is a problem, and have recently taken steps to ease the burden of their schedules.

What does the word "burden" convey in the sentence?

(A) a sense of stress that the baseball schedule places on its players

(B) a sense of anger that the Major League Baseball Players Association is not taking serious action

(D) a sense of curiosity as to how scientists reached their conclusions

This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. 5 Answer Key

1 What are the two central ideas of the article?

(A) 1 and 2

(B) 1 and 3

(D) 3 and 4

2 Read the last ﬁve paragraphs of the article.

Which paragraph BEST reﬂects the central idea that baseball players are taking actions to avoid the problems associated with jet lag?

Paragraph 15: Ballplayers know jet lag is a problem, and have recently taken steps to ease the burden of their schedules. The Major League Baseball Players Association, concerned about fatigue, negotiated several changes in scheduling rules starting in 2018. For example, each team's 162-game regular season schedule will be played over 187 days, up from 183. And there will be new rules on scheduling games, taking into account the timing of consecutive games.

This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. 6 3 What is the meaning of the phrase "unseen drag" as used in the following sentence?

(A) exposed issue

(B) covert solution

(D) obvious complication

4 Read the sentence from the article.

Ballplayers know jet lag is a problem, and have recently taken steps to ease the burden of their schedules.

What does the word "burden" convey in the sentence?

(A) a sense of stress that the baseball schedule places on its players

(B) a sense of anger that the Major League Baseball Players Association is not taking serious action

(D) a sense of curiosity as to how scientists reached their conclusions

This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. 7