Researchers at Cal have "embarked on an ambitious experiment" after receiving permission from the MLB Giants to put GoPro cameras in the dugout of the Single-A California League San Jose Giants that will "monitor players’ interactions, expressions and behavior during games to determine how they relate to production," according to Jared Diamond of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. The study is part of a "growing push to understand and quantify one of the most elusive and tantalizing concepts not just in baseball, but in workplaces everywhere: the true effect of team chemistry." Increasingly, forward-thinking franchises think it is possible not only to "measure the impact of chemistry, but to cultivate positive chemistry in an intentional and systematic fashion." That belief has "sparked an information arms race in an area often discussed but rarely analyzed in a scientific way." Brewers GM David Stearns said, "We know that our general satisfaction in our job and with the people that we work with probably has an impact on our job performance. There is a quest within the industry to figure out and learn a little bit more about that interaction and whether there’s any predictive ability in that interaction." The Giants, who "didn’t commission the study and will not have special access to the results, declined to comment." The researchers also "declined to comment until the study is complete" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 7/13).
