Attitudes of college and minor league baseball players toward selected issues of major league baseball free agency

The purpose of the study was to examine the attitudes of college and minor league baseball players toward selected issues of major league baseball free agency. An attempt was made to determine the attitudes college and minor league players had toward: (a) reasons why athletes play college baseball, (b) certain views of college baseball, and (c) certain views of free agency.

Subjects for the study were 31 college and 22 minor league baseball players. The college players were obtained from the teams competing in the 1994 NCAA Mideast Regional Tournament in Knoxville, Tennessee. The minor league players were obtained from two Double-A teams competing in the Southern League.

The athletes completed questionnaires that were divided into five sections: (a) baseball background, (b) reasons to play college baseball, (c) views on college baseball, (d) views on free agency, and (e) additional comments. Crosstabulations were calculated in order to compare the two groups' answers. A t-test was applied to Likert responses to determine if there were significant differences between college and minor league players attitudes towards reasons to play college baseball, views on college baseball, and views on free agency.

The results of the data suggested that college athletes play college baseball because they love the game and in order to play professional baseball. College athletes also felt college baseball was a training ground for the major leagues. College athletes were indifferent in their attitudes toward free agency. They did,however, feel that major league players should not go on strike. College athletes also indicated that they were not for major league players making as much as they can to play baseball.

Minor league players, on the other hand, possessed a different attitude towards free agency. They favored players making as much money as they can and striking over free agency. Minor league players did agree with college players in regard to playing college baseball because they loved the game and in order to play professional baseball. Minor league players did not feel college baseball was a training ground for the major leagues.

Further research needs to be conducted with a larger sample of college and minor league players to further validate current data.