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Imagine your favorite baseball team has it all tied up in a crucial game with a division rival. The opponent’s big hitter, known to be a cheater and a scoundrel comes up to bat. What is you first instinct? Is it to boo? If so, you might be doing your team more harm than good.
When Ryan Braun was suspended for the last 60+ games of the 2013 Major League Baseball season for “violations of the Basic Agreement and its Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program," it was evident that he had alienated teammates, opponents, and business partners like Green Bay Packers’ QB Aaron Rodgers.
Despite spending the off-season apologizing to season ticket holders, Braun had to expect that his return to baseball would be unwelcome, especially among opposing teams’ fans. When the 2014 season started, Braun was booed relentlessly on the road.
While most would whither when targeted by 40,000 booing fans, Ryan Braun seemed to excel. In the environments that the media described as most hostile, Braun seemed to be most effective, or one might state “homerific.” In the first game of the season against the Philadelphia Phillies, a team playing in a city where fans are notorious for taunting opposing teams’ players, Braun responded to a barrage of boos by hitting 3 home runs and driving in 7 runs. Eleven days later, Ryan Braun silenced a hostile Pittsburgh Pirate’s crowd, a divisional rival, with a home run in the top of the ninth that eventually led to a Brewers’ victory. Making sure that he muzzled every Pirate fan in Pittsburgh, the next night Braun drowned out the deafening jeers and homered again in the top of the ninth to seal a Brewer’s win. (After that homer, one of my friends who is a Pirates fan texted, “If I could murder Ryan Braun and not get caught, I most likely would do it.”)
In interviews, Braun stated that the crowd’s booing motivated him. According to reporter Jordan Schelling, Braun reported, “I love it. It's great. Seriously, as a competitor, I really do enjoy it. This is a challenging game for all of us, and it's a long season and playing in an environment like this is motivating.”
Baseball analysts praised Braun’s focus in hostile environments, but neglected to mention another factor that may have been contributing to Braun’s success. Specifically, the boos may have negatively affected the pitcher facing Braun.
Research that has examined the impact of negative cheering (booing) indicates that it may have a detrimental impact on the home team’s performance. Specifically, research has demonstrated that home basketball teams are more likely to turn the ball over and foul the opposition while fans boo in comparison to when fans support the team (Thirer & Rampey, 1979). The authors concluded that the fans’ booing may increase home player aggression which in turn may negatively affect performance.
Applying the authors’ theory to baseball, one might conclude that Braun’s success is as likely to be attributed to the opposing pitchers’ aggressiveness as his motivation to show the booing fans up. Specifically, booing Braun, something that is much more likely to occur on the road than in Milwaukee, may not only motivate Braun, but also increase the home team’s pitcher aggressiveness. An increase in aggression may increase pitch speed. However, an aggressive pitcher may sacrifice control for speed, allowing the batter to take advantage of an ill-placed pitch and increasing the batter’s potential success. Thus it may be more accurate to attribute Braun’s heroics to the opposing pitchers’ mistakes than Braun’s batting abilities. It should be noted that all of Braun’s HRs this season have occurred on the road.
So the next time your loyalty and emotions motivate you to boo the opposition, reconsider. Voicing your displeasure may actually help the person you are condemning while actually decreasing the probability that your team wins.
Thirer, J. & Rampey, M.S. (1979). Effects of abusive spectators’ behavior on performance of home and visiting intercollegiate basketball teams. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 48, 1047-1053.
