Fox News Web site features research from two CSUEB professors

April 21, 2010 5:50am

College of Business and Economics Professors Stephen Shmanske and Franklin Lowenthal were included in a recent article on whether or not there is a statistical advantage of batting first or last. The article, "Batting First May Be Best, Says Statistician," appeared in multiple news outlets, including foxnews.

The reporter wrote, "Working with colleague Franklin Lowenthal, Shmanske looked at the problem by considering games that enter extra innings or are tied after eight innings, when it might be expected that an advantage would be most pronounced. They found that although home teams still won a majority of games, that they won slightly fewer of these close games than the remainder of home games."

"What we found out was that there's certainly not a strong [last at bat advantage]," said Shmanske. "If anything the effect goes the other way."