PEP NHSSAA Second Place Winner: Team Philly

Team Philly, made up of Anish Sugan and Advik Sugan, won 2nd place in the PEP NHSSAA sports competition with their paper about heat safety in Major League Baseball. Compiling data from ~25,000 baseball games, they found out that players are playing in hot weather way too often without any rules to help them cool down. Because playing in extreme heats can make baseball players sick or other side conditions, Team Philly came up with a new policy.

By analyzing MLB games from 2015 to 2025 revealed that over 500 open-air games were played at a heat index of 95 F or higher, with around 21 games hitting the National Weather Service danger threshold of 105 F. Unlike youth baseball, tennis, or soccer, MLB currently has no policy to modify or delay play due to extreme heat, relying only on post-illness cooling rooms.

They concluded that the MLB should close stadium roofs at around 90 F and enforce extra water breaks whenever it gets way too hot or just postpone/cancel games when temperature exceeds 103 F. Their research helps prioritize all the baseball players health and provides an innovative solution.