Something really bothered me about this year’s World Series. No, I’m not talking about the cold temperatures and neutral site talk. As far as I’m concerned, baseball players need to toughen up a little bit anyways. Let them play in cold. Hell, even soccer players play in cold weather without whining. What makes baseball players so vulnerable to freezing temperatures? I’m not concerned with the called game issue either. That will work itself out.
What I’m concerned with is home field advantage. The Rays, by virtue of their membership in the American League, had home field advantage. (This also isn’t about the All-Star game. One topic at a time). What doesn’t ring true to me is that the Phillies were able to win the series four games to one having played three out of the five games at home.
The World Series is played in this fashion: The team with home field advantage is at home for games 1, 2, 6, and 7. Allowing the other team games 3, 4, and 5 at home and giving them more home games through the first five does not make sense to me. I understand that a team effectively loses home field advantage when they lose a game at home, as the Rays did. I understand that if you don’t lose at home you don’t have anything to worry about. However, I believe that at no point in a series should the team with home field advantage have played fewer home games than their opponent, regardless of whether or not they lost at home.
You could also think about it this way: by keeping the series in this 2-3-2 format, you’re also giving the team without home field advantage the benefit of three straight home games, which is more typical of what they’re used to and allows them to establish more of a normal rhythm.
I think the Rays have somthing to complain about here. Or maybe they should have just taken care of business.
