quote:This made me wonder about baseball teams. Do good or great HS baseball teams elevate the play of everyone else on the team?
It depends on whether these great baseball teams roll out their ace or one of their lesser pitchers.
If an average team throws out their ace and is a legitimate ace while the top team sends out their 4th or 5th option, then the underdog might have a shot to play up to the competition and pull off an upset.
If the top team throws their ace, then it's probably over before the game starts. This is assuming it already got into the heads of the underdogs before the game starts. If they got some confidence and play a good game, they might hang around a little longer.
It could work both ways. Playing a good team might amp up an opponent and they focus on playing better or a good team could just give an underdog a good beatdown and kill their confidence and cause them to play sloppy.