A replay of the baseball data

Abstract

Fudin, Renninger, Lembessis, and Hirshon (1993) reported a nonsignificant longevity advantage for right-handers in their analysis of archival baseball data, although the absolute values are still in the predicted direction. Differences in specific data entries and analyses are difficult to resolve; however, there is some indication that the data base that they analyzed differs from that in our study. Further, their use of parametric statistics, given distributional problems and grossly unequal group sizes, may account for the nonsignificance they observed, when compared to the nonparametric analyses that we used. While we considered our original study a pilot project, the literature now contains hundreds of studies that show that left-handedness is associated with a wide range of health-risk factors including serious accidents, immune system disorders, and birth-related complications that involve reduced oxygen. A recent study of the archival records of over 3000 cricket players showed a significant advantage of over 2 years in longevity for right-handed cricket players. On the basis of these findings, we still believe that left-handedness is a marker for reduced longevity.