title: Another look at baseball player initials and longevity.
abstract: Abel and Kruger (2007) reported that Major League Baseball players whose names have positive initials (such as ACE or GOD) live an average of 13 years longer than do players with negative initials (such as ASS or BAD) or players with neutral initials (such as GHR or TSW). However, this conclusion is based on a very small sample, selective initials, and a flawed statistical test. There is no statistically significant relationship between initials and longevity for Major League Baseball players when a correct test is applied to independently selected initials.
authors.affiliation: Department of Economics, Pomona College, 425 North College Avenue, Claremont, CA 91711, USA. gsmith@pomona.edu
authors.forename: Gary
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Smith
mesh_terms: D001484:Baseball / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008136:Longevity; D008297:Male; D009275:Names