Date: Mon, 20 Jul 1998 08:36:15 -0500
Reply-To: Discussion of Texas Rangers Major League Baseball Team
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Sender: Discussion of Texas Rangers Major League Baseball Team
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From: Beau Sharbrough <beau@CONNECT.NET>
Subject: Home Field Advantage
Hello to the list. Come with me into the Twilight Zone. For your consideration ...
Some of you are less inclined to stat-worship than others. I'm taking a minute of your time to discuss home-road records because the Rangers play three in KC starting tomorrow, and looking atKC's record uncovers a unique situation.... they are 15-30 at home (last in the AL) and 28-24 on the road (4th in the AL).
Winning, Home and Road - AL 5 (including Texas), NL 3 (the division leaders). The best home records are the NYankees at 33-6 and the Padres at 33-9. Everyone else has lost 16 or moreat home.
Winning at home, losing on the road - AL 3 (Toronto, GaryC's O's, and the M's), NL 7 (featuring the Dodgers, whose home and road records offset each other to make them a .500 club, and the Cardinals, mentioned below as the Missouri Mystery). None of these teams has an overall winning record.
Losing, Home and Road - AL 5, NL 4. The worst road teams are Seattle (17-30, and 8-28 on grass) in the AL and it's a tough call in the NL -- Arizona (16-35), Montreal (15-30) and Florida (13-30) are all welcome sights when they get off the bus.
Others - here's the guys who keep it from being simple. The Brewers are 25-25 at home and 23-23 on the road. They can't win anywhere, but they're close. That .500 record puts them ahead of St Louis and Pittsburgh, who are bigger losers on the road than winners at home, and the Weird Cincinnati Reds, who are losers at home and are even at 25-25 on the road. And then there's the Royals ...
KC is 15-30 at home, losing two of three, and 28-24 on the road. That's a better road record than home and road winners Texas (24-21), and Boston (26-24). It makes one wonder what this homefield advantage is, after all.
Conventional wisdom says that home field advantage has two contributing factors. You're in your own house, bed, car, schedule, etc, which is supposed to be good for you. Then there is the tactical advantage of having the last bat. I consider this last a relatively small advantage, because baseball games are almost never lost in the last bats - it makes the news when someone blows a 9th inning lead.
But here you got two teams in Missouri, one is a home winner and a road loser for an overall losing record (the Cards) and the other is a home loser and a road winner for ... an overall losing record (the Royals). I think that they should all leave their wives and kids for the women that they stay with on the road. They might want to consider keeping the players in a hotel in Kansas City, and having them stay on the bus a little bit.
The Royals home record of 15-30 looks bad next to Tampa Bay at 17-30. No place in ML Baseball is a more welcome sight for a visiting team than the clubhouse at KC, where the rest of the world is playing at a rate comparable to the Atlanta overall record (Atl is 663, 30-15 is 667).
I'm wondering if we could stay there and play them a few extra games.
A winning record on the road is pretty rare. In the NL, only the three division leaders have one, altho the Brewers and Reds are break even, at 9 and 13 games back, respectively. There are 6 in the AL, and the ones that aren't Royals are all first or second. Nobody wins on the road and loses at home, and loses overall. Nobody except the Royals, the Missouri Mystery.
The Yankees at +17, and the Braves at +10 are the only teams in baseball better than +7 on the road.
In other words, the Rangers are in a good spot to win the next 5 games. Good thing they aren't playing the Royals here.
-- Beau Sharbrough | GENTECH99, Salt Lake City, 22-23 Jan 99 Grapevine, Texas | <beau@connect.net> | Keep gambling out of the game, and www.connect.net/beau | keep Rose and Jackson out of the Hall.