Home Field (Dis)Advantage and the "Last-Ups" Effect

INTRODUCTION The null of baseball have an intriguing quirk that other major-league sports do not have, namely, the sequential order of play which always affords the last at-bat to the home team. We became interested in exploring the strategic effects of this quirk. If there is a significant strategic advantage (or disadvantage) to having the last at-bat, it may show up as a difference in win percentage of the home team in close games, where...