Comments on: Home Field Advantage in Sudden Death WS Games

By: Cabriael

Cabriael — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 06:54:19 +0000

@Dahook:

The KCR championship was due to Denkinger, remember?

According to the people who own this blog, Denkinger and Jim Joyce belong to the Hall of the Fame.

By: Brendan

Brendan — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 21:49:25 +0000

Gerry is right, the '24 series was the first 2-3-2. The '43 and '45 series were 3-4 instead due to the war.

By: Gerry

Gerry — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 04:23:24 +0000

Kds, the 2-3-2 structure only came into being around 1924 - before that, it was worked out afresh each year. 1945 was an anomaly, due to war-imposed travel restrictions, they went to a 3-4 format.

By: kds

kds — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 19:15:43 +0000

Anybody know how they determined home field way back when? From 1946 to the 1994 lack of playoffs it is clear that the NL got even years and the AL odd. But the Cubs had HFA in 1945. And I can't see any pattern before that.

By: dukeofflatbush

dukeofflatbush — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 17:56:18 +0000

Something to think about... As much importance that is attributed to having fans "motivate" the home team psychologically, I'd imagine that when the home team is losing or the visitors rallying, having the crowd go silent must balance that 'home-field advantage'. Watching your fans head for the exit or hold their heads in grief must take some of the pep out of a team.

By: daHOOK

daHOOK — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 14:27:14 +0000

In 1985, everybody made a big deal about how the Royals came back from being down 3-1 to win in 7 games...twice.

In fact, looking at the complete history, I find only two teams have had a 3-1 lead and won the series 4-3...The Red Sox in 1912 and the Cardinals in 1967, against the Red Sox (curse, anyone?).

By: Tmckelv

Tmckelv — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 14:24:56 +0000

One last point about this list...

I guess it is just the nature of the World Series, but to me, it is amazing just how many of the recent 7-game series include a truly amazing game 6 or 7.

2006 - ANA comeback in game 6, 2001 - ARIZ comeback against Rivera in game 7, 1997 - Reneria in game 7, 1991 - Jack Morris in game 7, 1986 - Schiraldi/Buckner in game 6, 1985 - bad call on Orta/Iorg hit in game 6, 1975 - Fisk in game 6/Reds in game 7

just to go back 35 years.

By: Tmckelv

Tmckelv — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 14:14:06 +0000

To finish my post from @1:

I looked up all of the series, and just the Indians-Marlins series in 1997 was there a split in games 6 and 7. In the other six series, the home team won both games 6 AND 7.

And if you go back and include the 79 Pirates, the winning team of the WS won the last two games of the series seven times out of the last eight.

I guess the message is that if you are up 3 games to 2 in the WS - you have to finish it off in game 6.

By: eorns

eorns — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 14:06:49 +0000

Thanks for the great list! Wow. Confoundingly streaky: Home team goes 7-3. Visitor goes 13-3, home goes 8-0. Weird.

The probability of a series going to 7 games is 5/16, or around 31% (assuming both teams have a 50/50 shot at winning each game). With this in mind:

Most consecutive years with a game 7: 4 (1955-58)
Most exciting time: from 1955-1975 13 of 21 WS go to 7 games.
Longest time with half WS going to 7: 47 years (1945-1991, 24 of 47).
Most years without a game 7: 8 (2003-2010, 1913-23 [includes 3 best-of-9 series])
Least exciting time: 1988-2010: Only 4 of the past 22 WS have gone 7.

Weird, how things even out here, too. The recent dry spell puts the total at 35/102 (not including 4 best-of-9 series), or 34%. In 1987, that stood at 31/80, or nearly 39%.

By: Tmckelv

Tmckelv — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 14:01:52 +0000

Being too lazy to actually look them up, I am thinking that since 1982 (the last 7 series that ended in 7 games), that more times than not the home team won games 6 AND 7 at home. I know that I SHOULD know all of them off the top of my head, but the memory is playing tricks.