The Issues That Divide Us

School becomes a lot more fun when you can relate it to what you love. So, when I was tasked with creating a survey for a Sample Survey Methods class, I knew I had to make it about baseball. While baseball brings people together, there are many topics that still divide us, and I wanted to know how people really felt.

So I set out to find the topics that still are contentious. I had my own ideas of course, but I also took to Twitter to and asked, “What is something you’re really opinionated about that others disagree with?” Responses were generally in line with what I expected, with the designated hitter and pace of play issues being prevalent. Other issues people responded with were regarding the use of an automatic strike zone or “robot umpires,” the instant replay system, and the updated slide rules.

From there, I had to narrow down the question list to something manageable. Originally, I was going to ask more questions relating to bunting, but I decided that asking four or five questions about it would be too much. Other questions that got eliminated were “Should a team wear the same style of socks (tall, short, stirrup, etc.)?” and “Should managers wear the same uniform as players?” I decided these questions wouldn’t tell me anything particularly interesting, and when the survey felt too long, it made sense to cut these two.

After this narrowing down, I was left with 15 statements I wanted people to rate their agreement on:

1. The National League should adopt the use of a designated hitter.
2. The National League should allow American League teams to use a designated hitter in National League ballparks.
3. Bunting is acceptable, even when nobody is on base.
4. Bunting is acceptable as long as it advances a base runner.
5. Relief pitchers should have to face at least two batters.
6. Relief pitchers should have to face at least three batters.
7. There should be a clock that limits the time between pitches.
8. The number of mound visits by a coach that do not involve pitching changes should be limited.
9. Eliminating the four-pitch intentional walk has improved the pace of play.
10. Instant replay, as a whole, has improved Major League Baseball.
11. Catchers should be able to block home plate.
12. Base runners should be able to slide into the second baseman to break up a double play.
13. It is acceptable for a second baseman not to make contact with second base while turning a double play, as long as he is close.
14. Major League Baseball should use cameras/robots to call balls and strikes instead of home plate umpires.
15. All Major League Baseball stadiums should have uniform field dimensions.

There were 1,000 total responses, with 996 usable responses. (Four people didn’t correctly respond with their age, including two that responded with their name.) There were 927 males, 67 females, and two that responded “other.” I asked about the gender of those taking the survey not to make any conclusions based on gender but to get a feel of the distribution of respondents. I anticipated there being more males that responded than females; however, the nearly 14-to-1 ratio was a bit shocking. Ages ranged from 15 to 72, with a median age of 33. There were 511 American League fans, 463 National League fans, and 22 with no favorite team, so the representation here was fairly even. The entire survey was conducted on June 4.

To begin, I decided to throw out the results for Questions 3 and 4. Question 3 was supposed to be about bunting for a base hit, and Question 4 was supposed to be about sacrifice bunting. I decided these questions were poorly worded and didn’t reflect what I intended them to. Also, the decision to bunt or not includes many more factors than those considered in the statements. Because of this, I didn’t feel like any meaningful conclusions could be drawn from the responses to these questions.

Question 14 showed interesting results. Although there was not a “statistically significant” difference between those who agreed and those who disagreed, this is what the distribution looks like when you break it down into age quartiles:

Considering that eliminating a home-plate umpire would be a drastic change to the way the game of baseball is played, it is surprising that the 41 to 72 age group had the highest amount of “strongly agree” responses. Meanwhile, the youngest group, 15 to 27, (who I assumed would be more willing to accept change), had the highest number of “strongly disagree” responses.

Questions 11 and 12 dealt with the updated slide rules that have been put in place in recent years. As of 2014, catchers could not block home plate in order to stop a runner from scoring. As of 2015, runners could not slide into the second baseman or shortstop in order to break up a double play. Question 12 had a small difference between those who agreed, at 44 percent, and those who disagreed, at 48 percent. Question 11 had a slightly higher difference between those who agreed, at 41 percent, and those who disagreed, at 47 percent. Because both of these differences are so small, a conclusion can’t really be drawn from these results.

This was a question I was hoping to see disagreement with. It is a bit disappointing to see how many people support these statements, as the rules were put in place to keep the players safe. However, baseball is full of traditionalists, so it is not surprising that fans may be resistant to changes in the way the game is played.

Question 13 talks about the “neighborhood play,” where the second baseman or shortstop doesn’t actually touch second base in order to turn a double play. Traditionally, the neighborhood play was supported in order to keep middle infielders safe. However, with the new slide rule put in place in 2015, and with teams being allowed to challenge the neighborhood play in 2016, the practice of the neighborhood play has declined. The results of this survey show that the neighborhood play is unpopular among fans as well. Around 70 percent of people who responded either strongly or somewhat disagreed with the statement.

Questions 5 and 6 proposed two potential solutions to the pace-of-play issue. To eliminate the down time caused by pitching changes, some responses to the pre-survey tweet were about imposing a minimum number of batters a relief pitcher would have to face. Both results showed the majority of people disagreed with these statements. There was a greater amount of disagreement with question 6, at 76 percent, than with question 5, at 62 percent. So, overall, setting a batter minimum for relief pitchers does not appear to be a favorable solution to the pace-of-play issue. These results went against what I expected but was more in line with how I felt about the issue.

In Question 7, I was getting at the idea of implementing a pitch clock at the major league level. Pitch clocks are already in place in the minor league level, with the punishment for going over the 20 seconds allotted between pitches being a called ball. About 56 percent of people agreed that a pitch clock should be implemented, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. Let’s look at how the responses broke down.

Only 19 percent strongly agreed, while 37 percent somewhat agreed. This, again, shows there is an interest in pace-of-play improvements, but there will likely be no rush to implement a pitch clock at the major league level.

Question 8 offered another pace-of-play solution by limiting the number of mound visits by a coach during a game, not including those involving a pitching change. Mound visits stop the pace of play completely to allow a head coach or pitching coach to talk to the pitcher. In 2016, Major League Baseball implemented a 30-second time limit on mound visits. However, it appears to be more of a suggestion and is rarely strictly enforced, if it’s enforced at all. This question had the highest agreement rate, about 80 percent. Therefore, to speed up the pace of play, limiting mound visits by coaches appears to be a popular option.

Question 9 was about the new intentional walk rule put in place this season. Just about half of the respondents either somewhat or strongly disagreed with the statement that this new rule improved pace of play. This question also had the greatest number of indifferent respondents, at 27 percent. These results are likely because the intentional walk does not happen very often. Eliminating the four-pitch intentional walk saves maybe a minute or two, which is very miniscule over a three-hour game. So, while this rule change had good intentions, the fans do not believe eliminating the four-pitch intentional walk has improved the pace of play.

Question 10 dealt with instant replay. Here’s the distribution of responses.

Major League Baseball introduced instant replay in 2014, well after most professional sports adopted it. Those who agreed (77 percent) greatly exceeded those who disagreed (13 percent). This result does not surprise me. Before the use of instant replay, there was nothing that could be done about wildly incorrect calls, like when Armando Galarraga lost a perfect game on the final out.

Something interesting to note is the fact that more people only somewhat agreed (48 percent) than strongly agreed (29 percent). One explanation for this goes back to the pace-of-play concerns. Instant replay stops the game; there is no action on the field while the manager is deciding whether to challenge a play, as well as during the review process. As of this season, managers must decide within 30 seconds whether they want to challenge the play or not. Also, it is suggested by Major League Baseball that the review be made in two minutes or less, but this is hard to enforce. However, the general agreement that instant replay has improved baseball shows fans are willing to sacrifice a few minutes of their time for the right call.

Question 1 had the most interesting results. Whether the National League should adopt the use of a designated hitter is one of the most divisive topics among baseball fans and one that is constantly ripe for discussion. Eli Ben-Porat tackled both sides of the issue here at THT just two weeks ago. With 44 percent of people disagreeing and 48 percent of people agreeing, the only conclusion I can draw is that this debate is far from over. However, if you split the answers based on whether respondents’ favorite team is in the AL or the NL, the graph looks like this:

There appears to be a relationship between what league your favorite team plays in and whether you are for or against widespread use of the designated hitter. It should be noted that this graph does not include the responses of the 22 people who marked that they did not have a favorite team.

Question 2 was also related to the DH argument. With 70 percent disagreement, regardless of league affiliation, this is not a viable solution to the debate.

Question 15 existed mostly to test just how strongly people would disagree with the statement, and it did not disappoint. Having 30 different and unique stadiums is what makes the game of baseball so much fun. However, it can be hard being a Detroit Tigers fan, watching Comerica Park turn 420-foot shots into long outs that would be a home run in any other park. The graph of responses to this question is beautiful.

I was not surprised that 805 people strongly disagreed with this statement. Even if you filter the responses and only look at Detroit Tigers fans, 30 out of the 41 strongly disagreed.

Something to note: When combining the strongly and somewhat responses into a general agree or disagree category, this does ignore those who respond indifferently. In all but two questions (Question 9 and Question 15), this category had the lowest response rate. Therefore, I feel confident making conclusions based on these groupings is justified.

I’d like to thank everyone who retweeted and participated in this survey.