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Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
http://hdl.handle.net/2451/26311
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| Title: | “Last licks”: Do they really help? |
| Authors: | Simon, Gary A.
Simonoff, Jeffrey S. |
| Keywords: | baseball
home advantage
softball |
| Issue Date: | 2005 |
| Publisher: | Stern School of Business, New York University |
| Series/Report no.: | SOR-2005-3 |
| Abstract: | Much has been written about the home field advantage in sports. Baseball
and softball are unusual games, in that the rules are explicitly
different for home versus visiting teams, since by rule home teams bat
second in each inning (they have “last licks”). This is
generally considered to be an advantage, which seems to be contradicted
by the apparent weakness of the home field advantage in baseball
compared to that in other sports. In this paper we examine the effect of
“last licks” on baseball and softball team success using
neutral site college baseball and softball playoff games. We find little
evidence of an effect in baseball, but much greater evidence in
softball, related to whether a game is close late in the game. In
softball games that are tied at the end of an inning, batting last seems
to be disadvantageous later in the game, apparently related to the
chances of the team scoring first to break the tie. By also examining
games where one team was playing on its home field, we are able to say
something about benefits from playing at home that are not related to
“last licks.” |
| URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/2451/26311 |
| Appears in Collections: | IOMS: Statistics Working Papers
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