[chrishthomas]

Hey Bob,
Yeah, I definitely agree about success and failure creating those spillover effects. I didn't mean for my post to exclude those kinds of contagion effects, because I certainly agree that they do exist. And there are even effects related to things like a player trying to do more at the plate because he knows the team's real run-producer is out of the lineup that day, or not feeling well, or in a slump. Yes, I concur those types of things definitely have group-level impact.

I was trying to limit my statement to that idea that my actual physiological state (fatigued versus well-rested; stressed versus relaxed) and my physical responses (mental processing time, accuracy and speed of thumb and control movements) is going to be similar for each and every player. I'm not sure emotional contagion has those types of discrete influences.

I probably should have been more explicit so as not to discount the viability of those effects that you have described.