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Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

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Abstract

Major League Baseball is one of America’s most honored organizations in the world. It was founded in 1869 making it one of the oldest sports organizations created. While for decades, the game of baseball, under the direction of the MLB has been highly praised, an injury epidemic began to diminish athletes' time playing the game. Injury in any sport is inevitable due to the unpredictable nature sports bring, however over the course of the last 40+ years, injury rates continue to skyrocket year in and year out in the sport of baseball. Where it shows its greatest effects is at the professional level. The current structure of the MLB’s off-season, in-season, and post-season schedule calls for baseball being played for over half the year, without stopping. The regular season framework consists of 162 games within a 180-day window. Additionally, prior to the 162 game regular season, each team will play 20+ spring training games (each year varying the number of games) within roughly a month. Beyond the pre and regular season schedules, if you are one of the 12 teams that make it to the postseason (playoffs), you could also add an additional 13 to 22 more games if you become the next World Series Champion (13 if a team wins every game, 22 if each series plays the max amount of games). Given this information, there is no question that playing any sport for this length, without a proper amount of rest time between competition, leaves a major susceptibility to athletes sustaining injury.

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