Study: Spring training starting earlier due to climate change

Pitchers and catchers are loosening us their arms earlier than before thanks to global warming, according a new scientific study.

For years, scientists have suspected that the human-fueled warming of the climate is causing spring to being earlier. Previous studies have relied on evidence from plant flowering, leaf emergence and bird migration. The new research, to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, is the first to demonstrate a change in the annual migration of baseball players.

According to the study, the average date of spring training is now 15 days earlier than in the 1960s. With the addition of extra playoff games now extending the baseball season into November most years, there is three weeks or more less baseball winter than just forty years ago. By the end of century, scientists expect spring training to begin before the end of the calendar year.