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In October, when Macklemore was pictured in a Knicks jersey, fans of the team immediately became concerned:

Knicks season already over pic.twitter.com/eEbCMZi2Ad

— WavyWorld (@BasedChasen)

October 8, 2014

The Knicks started off the season 2-1, with a win over the Cleveland Cavaliers.

In January, Macklemore performed ahead of the NFC Championship Game in Seattle. Late it in the game, when the outcome looked bleak for the Seahawks, fans let Macklemore have it:

Seattle really got 'The Curse of Macklemore' right now.

— d. (@dtringaaa)

January 18, 2015

The Curse of the Macklemore strikes AGAIN!!!

— Phil Paige (@Phil_JKD)

January 18, 2015

Little did those fans know, Macklemore was actually the reason the Seahawks would advance to the Super Bowl.

He was also there on December 14th, 2014 for a big Seahawks win over the 49ers.

Macklemore's presence has a positive affect. Dating back to the start of 2013, local teams have won 54% of their games (38-33) when Macklemore performs in the area.You can view a spreadsheet of the full data here.

During HOPE Week’s existence, the Yankees are 20-8, good for a .714 Winning Percentage. The week has also provided two walk-off wins for the Bombers, most recently on June 20th, 2014 when Carlos Beltran hit a two-run shot in the bottom of the 9th to give the Yankees a 3-1 win over the Orioles.

I called his bluff. With the exception of one incredible game, David Ortiz has actually stunk on National Television this year:

Well actually, David, you haven’t gone yard every time you’ve played on ESPN. And, on MLB Network, you’ve played pretty poorly. If you take out a 4/5, 2 HR night on July 26th, he is just 7/42 with 2 HRs in 10 National TV games. He just can't handle the spotlight, clearly.

Here’s how Drake’s Instagram posts about sports since the start of 2015 have correlated with future success (click to enlarge):

Now, it’s obviously unconfirmed whether or not the 6 God has the power to change the outcome of games. That said, when he’s posted a photo with or of an athlete/team on Instagram, they’ve gone on to win their next contest 18 out of 27 times.

Most recently, Drake used a famous photo of Joe Carter’s World-Series winning home run in 1993 as an album cover for his new Meek Mill diss track. The Jays then went on to beat Meek Mill’s city that night.

And, ever since that track - “Back to Back” - dropped, the Blue Jays have won five of six.

Entering Thursday, Harper leads the bigs in OPS, and the Washington Nationals occupy first place in the NL East. Who knows where they’d be if he never decided to mix it up every once in a while.

Take a look at the numbers based on what Bryce Harper decides to do with his pants (click to enlarge):

Harper is absolutely insane when he wears high socks. His OPS jumps almost .200 higher, and he’s gone yard 11 times in just 24 games. On top of it all - he’s hitting .384. And the Nationals? They’re actually three games under .500 when he decides to put the high socks or stirrups away.

Comprehensive research of the 720 promotions at Major League ballparks through July 26 shows a small but noticeable improvement in winning percentage over an average home game. Teams won 1.9% more games when they ran a promotion this season.  Over the course of 81 games, this amounts to an additional 1.6 wins each season.

Of course not all promos are created equal.  Magnet schedules, for instance, are the equivalent of receiving apples on Halloween. The good news is that the player-specific giveaways – bobble heads, gnomes, jerseys, and Billy Butler breakfast bowls included – and fireworks typically result in more wins.  Team giveaways and magnets also get the job done for home teams.

The statistics also show that the Star Wars nights need to stop.  Dollar Hot Dog nights, for all of their glory, are also counterproductive. The postgame concerts were a mixed bag, but Yung Joc, Nelly and Steve Miller Band took in wins before their shows, while Kacey Musgraves, OAR, and Lil Jon saw their home sides fall.

On a team by team basis, there were eight teams who saw drastic changes in their splits with and without promotions (over 10%).  The Braves should be running more promos, particularly concerts, magnets, player giveaways, and Star Wars nights, where they are 10-0.  On the North Side, the Cubs could stand to tone down their promotions, because it’s just not working out.

So, our exhaustive study comes with a few pointers for major league marketers.  The force has been against the home team on Star Wars night this season.  Home teams are faring well on player giveaway nights and when magnets are given away, but we’d all prefer more bobble heads.

And finally, the Indians can give away anything they want but it won’t make a big enough difference to change their horrific home record.

Notes on methodology: If multiple giveaways occur on the same day, they are double counted in the statistics (i.e. bobble heads and fireworks for the same game). Player-specific and team-specific giveaways are only included if they are tangible items (no running the bases) and don’t require a specific level of ticket.

Thanks chipotle for my free burrito's for life card! The best thing ever! I really appreciate it! @chipotletweets pic.twitter.com/JSn7DYmvy8

— Bryce Harper (@Bharper3407)

March 19, 2013

The Chipotle Celebrity Card might be the most sought after golden ticket in existence.  The secretive list of card holders has not been released and is extremely difficult to recreate, but some have shared their effusive praise publicly. After sifting through thousands of tweets, Instagram posts, and news stories on the subject, eleven athletes can be tied to a specific date.

Aerosmith frontman Stephen Tyler, skateboarder Tony Hawk, soccer standout Jozy Altidore, and Heat guard Mario Chalmers all have cards, but it’s not clear when they received them. Several MLS players recently received their cards and don’t have nearly enough time to feel its effects.

The athletes below received their year of free Chipotle and promptly posted on social media:

There are a few takeaways here.  Of the eleven athletes, five saw a dip in production or efficiency and five missed significant time due to injury or ineffectiveness.  In total, eight of the eleven had “disappointing” years for some reason or another.  Chandler Parsons underwhelmed compared to his final year in Houston, Ty Lawson had his least efficient scoring season in the NBA, and Russell Wilson had his worst statistical season by Total QBR standards.

Chalmers, for his part, said he gave up eating Chipotle last offseason to work on conditioning.

#HEAT #MediaDay Mario Chalmers secret to offseason conditioning, "No rice. No black beans. Gave up chipotle." pic.twitter.com/QB1wJ2ZfNC

— FOX Sports Florida (@SunSportsFOXFL)

September 26, 2014

A Chipotle spokesman told Yahoo! in 2013 that they don’t “share enough detail on [the celebrity card program] to make much of a story out of it.  We obviously beg to differ.

Of all teams in MLB, one of the clubs with an aquatic theme has performed the best following the premiere of the sci-fi films. Then, in second place, there’s a team located inside of tornado alley.

Here’s a complete look at the standings following the release of the first two Sharknado movies:

In general, teams with aquatic names (the Mariners, Marlins, Rays, and Pirates) are 56-34 (.622 Win %) and rest of baseball is 283-305 (.481 Win %).

Before the Los Angeles Angels travel to city to city, it’s common to see Mike Trout blast out a message to his 714,000+ followers. Here’s an example:

Each tweet includes the town the team is headed to, a series of airplane emojis, and a few exclamation points. In some cases, Trout will use as many as five emojis to convey he’s flying to a new city. There are also times in which he elects not to inform his fans that the team is en route. 

Here’s how Trout, and the Angels, have performed in each scenario leading up to the All-Star Break. When a pre-trip tweet was missing, I counted that as zero airplaine emojis. (Click on the image to enlarge)

While the sample sizes aren’t great, the Angels have performed noticeably better (12-5) when Trout is excited enough to tweet five emojis before a trip. When he didn’t send out a tweet, the team was 4-8 over the first half of 2015, though Trout hit a superb .375 in those 12 games. 

#Wayne RT @JimmerFLoww: @TheRealJRSmith whose ur favorite rapper?

— JR Smith (@TheRealJRSmith)

December 11, 2012

Have a look at J.R. Smith’s averages when Wayne releases a project (click to enlarge):

Now, I can’t guarantee J.R. listened to these albums and mixtapes before he played in his next game. I can say, though, his shot totals show he’s a bit juiced up in these contests. One thing that was evident during the study was that J.R. hit a hot streak a couple of these times. Most notably, his 32-pt showing in Boston in 2013 was followed by a 35-pt outing, and then a 37-pt performance.