At the European Sports Economics Association Conference in Liverpool, England, in August are, from left, CB Garrett, Justin Perline and Professor Rodney Paul, who presented 鈥淢inor League Team Success and Its Impact on MLB Player Performance.鈥�
Students Justin Perline 鈥�19 and Charles 鈥淐B鈥� Garrett 鈥�19 in Falk College鈥檚 sport analytics program attended and presented at the European Sports Economics Association (ESEA) Conference in Liverpool, England, from Aug. 29-31. ESEA is the premier sports economics conference held annually in Europe where sports economists present on a variety of theoretical and empirical models related to the economics of sports.
Their paper, 鈥淢inor League Team Success and Its Impact on MLB Player Performance,鈥� with sport management professor Rodney Paul as a co-author, is an academic treatment of the research by Perline and Garrett that was featured in Baseball America, a top website in the world of baseball.
Their research investigates positive externalities from minor league team success as it relates to marginal revenue product of a baseball player, measured by WAR (Wins Above Replacement). The results illustrate that winning has a positive impact on individual performance later in a player鈥檚 career and has economic implications for baseball teams and for the workplace in general.
Perline is a dual major in sport analytics and in newspaper and online journalism. Garrett is a dual major in sport analytics and broadcast and digital journalism.
鈥淚t was a great experience to get exposure for our research in front of international industry professionals,鈥� Garrett said. 鈥淭he other presentations helped enhance our knowledge of the field and will be put to use in our upcoming thesis.鈥�
Paul also presented 鈥淭he Role of Uncertainty of Outcome and Team Success on Attendance Outside the NHL: Comparing the top Leagues in Europe to the Minor Leagues in North America鈥� at the ESEA conference.
鈥淎s undergraduate students, the acceptance of the paper for the ESEA conference is especially impressive,鈥� Paul said. 鈥淛ustin and CB gained valuable experience presenting to a premier audience of researchers in sports economics. They did an excellent job and received terrific feedback on their project. We are thankful for the Berlin gift, which made this possible for our students.鈥�
Earlier this year, a $1 million gift was made by 黑料不打烊 Trustee and alumnus Andrew T. Berlin 鈥�83, partner owner of the world champion Chicago Cubs and its minor league affiliate, the South Bend Cubs, to benefit student-focused initiatives in Falk College鈥檚 sport analytics program.
