Jet Lag From MLB Players

So, it isn’t exactly surprising that jet lag takes a toll on the performance of professional athletes specifically Major League Baseball pitchers who travel across multiple time zones, as was detailed in an article published Monday in one of the world’s top scientific journals, PNAS.

Diet, alcohol, class of travel, as well as other circumstances such as whether you have to work at the other end or whether you can rest will all make a difference to your experience of jet lag.

One finding is that jet lag affects both home and away teams, but that the offensive performance of the home team is more adversely affected by jet lag.

The authors speculate that “the away team has a more structured daily schedule when away from home than does the home team returning home.” Given this, it is somewhat surprising that they also found that both home and away teams, under the influence of jet lag and controlling for home team advantage as well as the difference of playing in different ball park showed a marked increase in the number of home runs they allowed.

There was another finding that didn’t surprise me much because it matches my own travel experience so well: The effects of jet lag are noticeably worse traveling west to east than in the opposite direction.

For example, as the authors suggest, “a starting pitcher scheduled for a game in which the team is jet-lagged might travel to the game location a few days ahead of the team, to adjust to the new time zone.”