Violence and race in professional baseball: Getting better or getting worse?

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between race and violence in the context of professional baseball. Specifically, I used the number of times a batter was hit by a pitch (per plate appearance) as an indicator of being the victim of an indirect violent act. Archival data were gathered from 4,273 players from 1950 to 1997, yielding 27,022 individual records. Even after controlling for player ability and league rules, race was a significant predictor of being hit. Specifically, from 19 50 to 1997, the rate at which Blacks were hit was approximately 7.5% greater than the rate for Whites. The rate at which Hispanics were hit was approximately 7.6% greater than the rate for Whites. Testing year as a moderator revealed that the Black-White, difference was much greater in the 1950s and 1960s. From 1970 to 1989, race was not a significant predictor of being hit. Contrary to the hypotheses, from 1990 to 1997, Whites and Hispanics were hit at a significantly higher rate than Blacks (23.0% and 29.0%, respectively). Additional analyses revealed no relationship between pitcher race and batter race in hit-by-pitch events from 1997 to 1999. The findings are discussed with respect to group threat theory and the distinction between covert and overt aggression. (C) 2002 Wiley-Liss, Inc.