Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2007. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains v, 77 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references.

This study researched the effects of negative publicity on the performance of professional baseball athletes. Four athletes’ performance statistics were evaluated before a scandal that produced negative publicity, during the height of the negative publicity and after the scrutiny tapered off. Chipper Jones, Wade Boggs, Alex Rodriguez and David Justice were the athletes chosen for the study, and all four athletes experienced a similar scandal and negative publicity about their personal and professional lives. The results showed an effect on performance, but it was not always negative and could not be definitively linked to the negative exposure in the media. This suggests that further research is needed and should be continued on a broader scale.

Thesis (M.S.)--Springfield College, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available online (PDF file) by a subscription to the set or by purchasing the individual file.

The formation of the Football Academy in Malaysia was seen as the best possible way to develop young footballers, through a decentralized programme with the aim to provide a strong base for many players who are sound and strong and to produce an individual player who can reach world class standard. With the problem of performance of the Malaysia national football team, which has been considerably affected by problems relating to the knowledge of coaching and behaviour of the football coaches in the coaching process, the study of the academy football coaches in Malaysia was conducted to offer some possible ways to address the issues facing the coaching profession in Malaysia. It is significant to study the academy coaches since the football academies are expected to play a prominent role in producing quality players for the states, national and international teams. The study applied a qualitative methodology to explore the unique features and circumstances surrounding the football academy coaches and players in the context of this study and the major sources of data include the interview, observation and documentation analysis. Subsequently, the findings of this study revealed that i) the development of knowledge of coaching has taken place in the academy but constrained by factors involving the coach education programme at the academy level; ii) the weaknesses of the coaches in transferring important knowledge to the players showed a significant impact on the players' performance; iii) the coaches' behaviour that were seen in organizing the players and training them for competition has impacted on the players' performance; iv) the important relationship between coaches' knowledge and behaviour that play a significant role in the development of the players; and v) other factors which have impact on the coaches' behaviour during the coaching process.

本研究以資料包絡分析法來衡量職業球員的績效表現，球員在簽訂複數年合約前後與績效表現之關聯性，來探討球員是否有合約週期的現象，進而再探究球員處於合約年的比率多寡，是否會對球隊的勝率造成影響。 　　本研究以2002年球季結束後至2008年球季開始前，這段期間曾與球團簽訂複數年合約的美國大聯盟球員為研究對象。實證結果顯示投手在簽訂複數年合約前一年，純粹技術效率有明顯增加，野手部分則顯示在簽約前兩年整體技術效率呈現顯著增加。研究結果顯示支持合約週期理論，即球員在合約年之前會刻意增加表現，以便爭取較佳之合約。另外，以2009年各球隊的勝場數為研究對象，實證結果顯示，當球隊中有較多投手處於複數年合約的第一年，則球隊的勝場數顯著較少。 / This research applies Data envelopment analysis to examine the performance of Major League Baseball (MLB) players before and after signing multi-year contracts. The research also aims to explore the claim of contract cycle theory by investigating whether contract status has an influence on wining ratio of a team. The sample includes players who signed multi-year contracts between end of season 2002 and prior season 2008. The result illustrates that pitchers’pure technical efficiency increase significantly before signing the contract and fielders’total technical efficiency increase significantly 2 years before the contract signing. The results support the contract cycle theory that players show a tendency to improve their performance prior to signing a contract in order to earn a better contract. In addition, the teams with more players who are in their first year of multi-year contract have a significantly less number of wining ratio.