A new study from the centre looking at divorce rates before and after cities got Major League Baseball teams is fascinating in its implications. The study showed that cities with major league baseball teams had a 28 percent lower divorce rate than cities that wanted major league baseball teams. Can marital harmony really be this simple?
For example, in 1990, a year before Denver was awarded a major league baseball franchise, the city’s divorce rate stood at six divorces per 1,000 people. Ten years later, and seven years after the Colorado Rockies played their first game, the divorce rate had declined 20 percent to 4.2 divorces per 1,000 people. In contrast, the overall U.S. divorce rate dropped 15 percent.
University of Denver (DU) director of the Center for Marital and Family Studies, psychology professor Howard Markman also studied divorce rates in other cities that welcomed a major league team and found a 30 percent decline in divorces in Phoenix, a 30 percent drop in Miami and a 17 percent drop in Tampa Bay area. While there could be many explanations for this significant difference, Markman stresses the importance of fun and friendship in a healthy marriage. Going to baseball games is one way couples can have fun together and talk as friends.
“Going to a baseball game and not talking about relationship issues, but rather having fun and talking as friends is one of the ways to protect and preserve love,” Markman says.
I can’t wait for a Billionaire to say that a new Stadium would be beneficial for the community because having a team decreases divorces.
Gamingboy
Posted: April 15, 2009 at 05:43 PM |
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1. Crashburn Alley Posted: April 15, 2009 at 06:23 PM (#3139377)There are a ton of factors that create noise and I would bet a lot of money that the r-square, if they even bothered to find one, is really quite low.
* Mother's Basement Dwellers.
I'd be single in a week if I made my girl go to a baseball game. Not that she'd leave me, but I'd kill her when she asked me for the 20th time how many innings there are and why all the players are so fat.
Wait, you mean we men have had it right all along?
Of course we have, but I double dog dare you to try to convince your significant other of this.
I would think, on the face of it, that divorce rate would continue to decline as societal pressures to marry become less. I have no stats to back that up, just a hypothesis.
This would be my guess, too. I'm not married, but I've lived with my girl for 5 years and I don't feel pressured to go through the formalities. Our parents on the other hand...
I read a stray stat somewhere that said that the percentage of Americans living with people they aren't related to (either sexual partners they aren't married to or roommates) is growing rapidly.
It used to be that single people lived alone, but this is getting harder to do as the percentage of people's income they spend on housing has gone up.
I don't think it's porn. I'm assuming it's just a visual hook to get you to play an RPG. I'm not against more soft core porn ads, BTW. Keep 'em coming!
Right now it's Mormons at the top, soft core porn on the side. Which to choose, which to choose...
That would be the best Big Love episode ever.
Single, and apparently, in jail on murder charges...
I really suspect this is a function of the geographic center of population of MLB cities being in the northeast, which already has a lower incidence of divorce than the national averages (IIRC Massachusetts has the lowest rate of any state). The article does, however, show larger-than-average declines in Denver, so take it for what it's worth.
#1 is right: this could also be a variant of the "churches cause epilepsy" fallacy.
wait, you mean churches don't cause epilepsy?
Best regards,
Mike Green
*They did, however go to their first baseball game last summer in Anaheim, and both of my nieces had a great time, so I'm told.
*I was also my 1st wife's 2nd husband. I like mathematical trends & patterns & such, but I can't say I have any sort of desire to become a 3rd woman's 4th husband.
This was the most insanely crazy tournament ever. Three #1 seeds lost in the first round. Bemdiji State made it to the final four. Two games were tied up by scoring two goals in the last minute. A third game was tied up with even less time left on the clock than Duluth had. Two more games were won on goals with less than 15 seconds left in regulation. And Vermont beat Air Force in overtime on possibly the craziest goal I've ever seen.
I've never actually watched NCAA hockey, but this description has got me jazzed for the NHL playoffs. T-minus 90 minutes!
edit: the Leafs aren't in it, so it won't be the most exciting playoffs for me, but Ottawa is out too, so at least a cloud of dread won't be hanging over me.
Perhaps not, but it's hardly worth the risk.
What if it's a Fibonacci sequence (3rd wife's 5th husband)?
I think we need to revisit that time machine discussion from one of the Adenhart threads.
You need to add a half hour in Newfoundland.
Don't marry the widow next door.
But you wouldn't be divorced.
Where do you live? Most teams only have at most two fat players on the field at any given time. Maybe more if you're the Nationals.
Doesn't matter. She thinks they're all fat and they run slow. I think it's because she generally only sees baseball when I have a game on the tube. She does like the high socks, though. She's immediately fond of the few players who show the socks. She'll watch World Cup soccer and a bit of the Olympics and I'm fine with that. I really have no desire for us to share sports fandom together. I feel ridiculous being a sports fan sometimes, to be honest.
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