Episode 88: Does “Clutch” Performance Exist?

Send us Fan MailA common argument among sports fans is whether coming through “in the clutch” — where an athlete is said to raise his or her level of performance in the most important moments of the game — truly exists.  Some cite chapter and verse of their favorite players doing spectacular things under intense pressure to bolster their argument for its existence, while others insist with equal vehemence that clutch is a figment of the imagination, unsupported by the data.  Well it’s the bottom of the 9th, folks, and Mark and Joe go deep on whether clutch is fact or fiction. (Recorded  April 12, 2024.)