Park effects

Last updated

In sports, park effects are the unique factors of each stadium/arena which impact a game's outcome. These effects are broken down into different components and used in advanced statistical analysis. [1] While most sports have regulation-sized fields, some sports/leagues such as Major League Baseball (MLB) and NCAA Hockey, allow for varying field of play dimensions. The most common example of a park effect is a baseball stadium's batting park factor, but there exists other factors that impact all sports. Every stadium throughout the world has its own unique effects that impact the sports played there.

Contents

Coors Field, at 5,200 feet (1,580 m) above sea level, has the highest altitude of any MLB stadium. Coors Field.jpg
Coors Field, at 5,200 feet (1,580 m) above sea level, has the highest altitude of any MLB stadium.

Park Factors (Baseball)

Because baseball allows for unique field dimensions, each stadium is prone to favoring certain outcomes, and thus can favor pitchers or hitters. This has become the most prominent park effect, known as park factors (PF), which indicates the difference between a team's offense and defense in home and road games. These calculations generally excluding Coors Field, due to its higher altitude, and interleague games due to the varying of a designated hitter (DH) up until the 2020 season, in which the DH was installed to the National League . [2]

Used as a part of many statistical prediction models as well as utilized strategically in a plethora of ways, park factors can explain varying offensive outputs of specific players, teams and eras of baseball. These factors can be produced based on a multitude of offensive statistics, but are generally, and most easily calculated based on team runs and home runs. [2]

Calculations

A general description of park factors includes comparing the number of runs scored and allowed by each individual team at home and subsequently compared to league average. Although league average can be adjusted for each team to account for which stadiums each team actually played in, but statistically, the difference is marginal and thus ignored. Runs scored are compared to games, or outs as there are 27 outs in a game, rather than plate appearances because the outs per game stay constant while the number of plate appearances changes. The following formulas calculate park factors: [3] [2]

where

The intermediate park factor (iPF) makes PF applicable to composite stats rather than just home stats. iPF is calculated as follows:

The final PF (fPF) uses weights to regress the data based on which year it came from. Although weights can be calculated in various ways, the general consensus is any differences are marginal. fPF is calculated as follows:

where Xi = is the weight for the ith year.

These calculations give a fPF on a scale of one, meaning one is league average and every decimal above/below one corresponds to one percent above/below league average. Ex. A fPF of 1.20 means offense, based on runs, is expected to be 20% increased; and vice verse, a fPF of 0.80 results in offense expected to be decreased by 20%. [2]

Application outside Major League Baseball

Park factors have, of recent time, been applied to leagues outside the MLB. In Minor League Baseball, there are 160 affiliate teams above the rookie complex level, across 14 leagues, of which all have their own park factors, determined by various offensive stats, most common being runs and home runs. [4] Further examples include the calculation of park factors in Nippon Professional Baseball, [5] as well as prospective future calculations by FanGraphs in the Korea Baseball Organization. [6] Park factors have even been calculated for non-professional leagues, such as the Cape Cod League, a top summer collegiate baseball league in the United States. [7]

Altitude

Altitude effects all sports in various ways. At higher altitudes, all physical activity becomes more difficult [8] due to a multitude of reasons, including the lower oxygen levels. But beyond the impact on the athletes, who, in all sports experience physiological effects, higher altitudes result in less air resistance on moving objects. In baseball, this lower air resistance produces more runs. While much of the research regarding the effects of altitude on the flight of baseballs is relative to more home runs, altitude has been shown to increase offense in all aspects which contact is made. [9] The only MLB stadium of drastically high altitude is Coors Field, however, there are several other professional stadiums throughout the country with competingly high altitudes. MLB stadium altitudes range from the 5211 feet above sea level of Coors Field to the 20 feet of Philadelphia's Citizen Bank Park. [10] Yet, one must consider that much of the influence of altitudes are de facto calculated in a stadium's park factor as a result of total offensive output by stadium. In basketball, just as in baseball, altitudes impact shot basketballs.

The Estadio Hernando Siles in use during a Bolivian National Team game. Curva Norte Estadio Hernando Siles.jpg
The Estadio Hernando Siles in use during a Bolivian National Team game.

Shooters tend to expand their shooting range as the basketballs experience less air resistance when shot. This is why it is generally expected that teams who play their home games at higher altitudes have a stronger home court advantage, [11] however, this has also been seen to produce a weaker away game production for these same high altitude teams. In Football, these same effects on moving objects is in play, allowing the football to travel further with the same energy put into it. Thus kickers tend to kick from further distances with ease as well as quarterbacks throwing further with the same ease. However, players have disagreed on how strong an influence the altitude of the venue plays in the outcome of the game and performance of the players. [12] Soccer, being a worldwide sport, has more variance among its stadiums as well as the geography of these stadiums. This results in stadiums over double the maximum American stadium altitude, and consequently, stronger effects. This has driven much controversy over the validity of certain stadiums, such as the Estadio Hernando Siles in Bolivia, which sits close to 12,000 feet above sea level.

Due to the stadium's extremely high altitude, the Estadio Hernando Siles was, at one point, facing a ban by FIFA attributed to an unfair advantage but the ban was revoked after about a year. Latin American countries and leaders argued that this was not intentional but rather a lay of the land and discriminated against many South American countries. [13]

Dome Effects (Basketball)

One of the more noticeable park effects in basketball occurs in NCAA basketball. There is noticeably lower shooting numbers in domed stadiums, usually football stadiums temporarily converted to a basketball arena, compared to typical basketball arenas. Although the reasoning as to why this is a reoccurring phenomena is undeclared, it has become so well accepted that even sport betting bookmakers have been known to lower point based bets in dome stadiums. [14] The most notable stadium which has wreaked havoc on shooting numbers is NRG Stadium, usual home of the Houston Texans, but at times the home of some college basketball games. However, there are studies which debunk this effect, labeling it as a myth. Using various measures of offense (points, free throws, multiple shooting percentages), it has been argued that domed stadiums do not average lower offensive numbers to any significance, and in some instances is better. [15]

Dimensional differences between international ice hockey rinks and NHL rinks. Rink - IIHF vs NHL.jpg
Dimensional differences between international ice hockey rinks and NHL rinks.

Rink Size (Hockey)

While the NHL has a constant rink size throughout the league, Olympic hockey uses a larger rink, as well as various rink sizes in NCAA Hockey. [16] Although not measured quite to the extent of baseball, varying rink sizes do strongly impact the outcome of the game and how specific players perform. Those who have played on various sized rinks tend to agree that the smaller the rink, the quicker the pace of the game. And vice versa for larger rinks, in which there is more space to play, players have more time to react and skate. [17]

Related Research Articles

In baseball, value over replacement player is a statistic popularized by Keith Woolner that demonstrates how much a hitter or pitcher contributes to their team in comparison to a replacement-level player who is an average fielder at that position and a below average hitter. A replacement player performs at "replacement level," which is the level of performance an average team can expect when trying to replace a player at minimal cost, also known as "freely available talent."

Coors Field Baseball stadium in Denver, Colorado

Coors Field is a baseball stadium in downtown Denver, Colorado. It is the home field of Major League Baseball's Colorado Rockies. Opened in 1995, the park is located in Denver's Lower Downtown neighborhood, two blocks from Union Station. The stadium has a capacity of 50,144 people for baseball.

The player efficiency rating (PER) is John Hollinger's all-in-one basketball rating, which attempts to collect or boil down all of a player's contributions into one number. Using a detailed formula, Hollinger developed a system that rates every player's statistical performance.

Batting Park Factor, also simply called Park Factor or BPF, is a baseball statistic that indicates the difference between runs scored in a team's home and road games. Most commonly used as a metric in the sabermetric community, it has found more general usage in recent years. It is helpful in assessing how much a specific ballpark contributes to the offensive production of a team or player.

The 2007 Major League Baseball season began on April 1 with a rematch of the 2006 National League Championship Series; the St. Louis Cardinals and New York Mets played the first game of the season at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri, which was won by the Mets, 6–1. The regular season concluded with seven teams entering the postseason who had failed to reach the 2006 playoffs including all National League teams, with only the New York Yankees returning; a dramatic one-game playoff between the Colorado Rockies and San Diego Padres; and the largest September collapse for a leading team in baseball history, with the Mets squandering a 7-game lead with 17 to play, losing on the final day of the regular season, and the Philadelphia Phillies capturing the National League East for the first time since 1993. The season ended on October 28, with the Boston Red Sox sweeping the World Series over the Rockies, four games to none.

The 1997 Major League Baseball season was the inaugural season for Interleague play, as well as the final season in the American League for the Milwaukee Brewers before moving to the NL the following season. The California Angels changed their name to the Anaheim Angels. The Florida Marlins ended the season as the World Champions defeating the Cleveland Indians in a seven-game World Series, four games to three.

The 1995 Major League Baseball season was the first season to be played under the expanded postseason format, as the League Division Series (LDS) was played in both the American and National leagues for the first time. However, due to the 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike which carried into the 1995 season, a shortened 144-game schedule commenced on April 25, when the Florida Marlins played host to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The 1998 Major League Baseball season ended with the New York Yankees sweeping the San Diego Padres in the World Series, after they had won a then AL record 114 regular season games. The Yankees finished with 125 wins for the season, which remains the MLB record.

The 1999 Major League Baseball season ended with the New York Yankees sweeping the Atlanta Braves in the World Series.

The 1996 Major League Baseball season was the final season of league-only play before the beginning of interleague play the following season. The season ended with the New York Yankees defeating the defending champion Atlanta Braves in six games for the World Series title, the Yankees' first championship since 1978. The record for most home runs hit in an MLB regular season, set at 4,458 in 1987, was broken, as the AL and NL combined to hit 4,962 home runs. Only 196 shutouts were recorded in the 2,266 MLB regular-season games. This was the first season in the Divisional Series era to be played to the full 162 games, as the 1994–95 player's strike caused the first two seasons of the era to be abbreviated.

The 1994 Major League Baseball season began on April 3, but ended early on August 11, 1994 with the 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike. The season started despite the expiration of MLB's previous collective bargaining agreement at the end of 1993. It was the first season played under the current three-division format in each league. It was also the first with an Opening Night game involving two National League teams, which did not become permanent until 1996.

The 1990 Major League Baseball season saw the Cincinnati Reds upset the heavily favored Oakland Athletics in the World Series, for their first title since 1976.

The 1989 Major League Baseball season saw the Oakland Athletics win their first World Series title since 1974.

The 1968 Major League Baseball season was contested from April 10 to October 10, 1968. It was the last year of baseball's pre-playoffs era, in which the teams that finished in first place in each league went directly to the World Series to face each other for the "World Championship." A playoff system was developed and debuted in 1969; with the addition of four expansion teams, both leagues were divided into two six-team divisions, with the winners competing in the League Championship Series. It featured the most dominant pitching year of the modern era, and the first season of the Oakland Athletics.

The 1970 Major League Baseball season. The Seattle Pilots relocated to Milwaukee and became the Brewers, thus returning Major League Baseball to Wisconsin for the first time since the relocation of the Milwaukee Braves to Atlanta following the 1965 season. Major League Baseball returned to Seattle in 1977, when the Mariners began play.

The 1956 Major League Baseball season was contested from April 17 to October 10, 1956, featuring eight teams in the National League and eight teams in the American League. The 1956 World Series was a rematch of the previous year's series between the New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers. The series is notable for Yankees pitcher Don Larsen's perfect game in Game 5.

The 1971 Major League Baseball season was the final season for the Senators in Washington, D.C., before the team's relocation to the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb Arlington for the following season, as the Texas Rangers, leaving the nation's capital without a baseball team of its own until 2005.

The 1930 Major League Baseball season was contested from April 14 to October 8, 1930. The St. Louis Cardinals and Philadelphia Athletics were the regular season champions of the National League and American League, respectively. The Athletics then defeated the Cardinals in the World Series, four games to two.

The 1961 Major League Baseball season was played from April 10 to October 12, 1961. That season saw the New York Yankees defeat the Cincinnati Reds in five games in the World Series. The season is best known for Yankee teammates Roger Maris' and Mickey Mantle's pursuit of Babe Ruth's prestigious 34-year-old single-season home run record of 60. Maris ultimately broke the record when he hit his 61st home run on the final day of the regular season, while Mantle was forced out of the lineup in late-September due to a hip infection and finished with 54 home runs.

The 1976 Major League Baseball season ended with the Cincinnati Reds winning their second consecutive World Series championship.

References

  1. ↑ "Park Adjustments". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved 2020-10-01.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Park Factors – 5 Year Regressed | Sabermetrics Library" . Retrieved 2020-10-01.
  3. ↑ "Park Factors | Sabermetrics Library" . Retrieved 2020-10-01.
  4. ↑ Eddy, Matt. "Minor League Baseball Park Factors 2019". www.baseballamerica.com. Retrieved 2020-10-01.
  5. ↑ "Park Factors". NPB STATS. Retrieved 2020-10-01.
  6. ↑ "Introducing KBO Stats on FanGraphs!". FanGraphs Baseball. Retrieved 2020-10-01.
  7. ↑ sabr. "cWAR: Modifying Wins Above Replacement with the Cape Cod Baseball League – Society for American Baseball Research" . Retrieved 2020-10-01.
  8. ↑ "Altitude Physiology in Basketball". www.basketballvmi.com. Retrieved 2020-10-21.
  9. ↑ admin. "High Altitude Offense: An Empirical Examination of the Relationship Between Runs Scored and Stadium Elevation – Society for American Baseball Research" . Retrieved 2020-10-21.
  10. ↑ "Citizens Bank Park, Pennsylvania Latitude/Longitude". www.lat-long.com. Retrieved 2020-10-21.
  11. ↑ Rush, Joel. "Study Affirms Altitude Boosts Denver Nuggets' Home Advantage, But Do Other Factors Blunt The Impact?". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-10-21.
  12. ↑ "Elevation 5280'". www.empowerfieldatmilehigh.com. Retrieved 2020-10-21.
  13. ↑ "Estadio Hernando Siles - La Paz - The Stadium Guide" (in Dutch). Retrieved 2020-10-22.
  14. ↑ Tracy, Marc (2016-03-31). "In College Basketball, Cavernous Stadiums Tend to Dampen Shooting (Published 2016)". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2020-10-21.
  15. ↑ "Analysis: College Basketball's Dome Effect Is A Myth". ELDORADO. Retrieved 2020-10-21.
  16. ↑ Dec 30th 2017 - 8pm, Brad Elliott Schlossman |. "Once a trend in college hockey, Olympic-sized rinks are going away |". www.fccnn.com. Retrieved 2020-10-21.
  17. ↑ "Not every 200 foot by 85 foot NHL rink is the same". NHL.com. Retrieved 2020-10-21.
    This page is based on this Wikipedia article
    Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
    Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.