Hot and Bothered Professional pitchers have awfully good aim, so when they hit batters with the baseball, it is safe to assume that it was not an accident. This graph shows data from nearly 60 000 major league baseball games. As you can see, as the temperature on the field increases, so does the likelihood that Team A batters will be hit by Team B pitchers. This effect becomes even stronger when Team B batters have previously been hit by Team A pitchers, suggesting that the Team B pitcher is seeking revenge (Larrick et al., 2011).

ROBERT SABO/NY DAILY NEWS ARCHIVE VIA GETTY IMAGES.