Do you think having home field advantage gave the Royals an edge in the World Series?
- Owen Ireton
- Owen Ireton
First of all, I apologize for taking so long to respond to everyone's questions during the World Series. The last few weeks have been extremely hectic!
To answer your question, Owen, I think home field advantage absolutely did give the Royals an edge in the World Series, even though they ended up losing the series in seven games. There are some ballparks where home field advantage is greater than others - Yankee Stadium, for example, is a very intimidating place for visiting players, while Tropicana Field (where the Rays play) has way too many empty seats and disengaged fans to provide much of an advantage to its home team. I don't think Kauffman Stadium (where the Royals play) is quite as wild as Yankee Stadium is, but Kansas City has very loyal fans, and I definitely think they have an advantage when they're playing at home.
To answer your question, Owen, I think home field advantage absolutely did give the Royals an edge in the World Series, even though they ended up losing the series in seven games. There are some ballparks where home field advantage is greater than others - Yankee Stadium, for example, is a very intimidating place for visiting players, while Tropicana Field (where the Rays play) has way too many empty seats and disengaged fans to provide much of an advantage to its home team. I don't think Kauffman Stadium (where the Royals play) is quite as wild as Yankee Stadium is, but Kansas City has very loyal fans, and I definitely think they have an advantage when they're playing at home.
As you probably noticed when you were watching the playoffs, there are stats for everything in baseball. The thing is, there is not one stat that can tell you how much of an edge you get from having home field advantage, and so this is not something everyone in baseball agrees on. I could tell you that the home team had won every Game 7 in the World Series since 1979, but then someone else could tell you that over the past century, it's actually closer to 50/50 between the home and away teams. Or maybe they'd tell you that none of this matters, because Madison Bumgarner's numbers were way better on the road than they were at home this season (7-6 with a 4.03 ERA at home, and 11-4 with a 2.22 ERA on the road), and he's the equalizer. And he was. What Bumgarner did in this year's World Series - coming back for five innings of relief in Game 7, just two days after pitching a complete game - is something that hasn't been done in over 100 years!! |
I hope you guys were all able to sit down and enjoy some of this World Series, because it was definitely a special one.