Home verse Road

[sbrylski]

We all know teams will usually win more at home than they do on the road.

 

Why?

 

Well, I'd imagine the main factors would be the pysical/psychological effects of travelling cross country to an unfamiliar city and ballpark and the home teams advantage of batting during the bottom of an inning.

 

But how much does each factor contribute? Has there ever been a study to show how much of an advantage a team has simply by batting second? If we knew that advantage in the form of win%, then we could easily determine the disadvantage due to just travel.

 

Is there this data anywhere?

[TheCrew07]

It's true across all sports though, not just baseball, so I don't think having last raps means anything except in extra innings.

[mothershipconnection]

Behaviorally, it makes perfect sense. When a skill is trained and performed in a particular stimulus condition, it typically fails to generalize perfectly to another setting. It's similar to the oft-quoted results of studies that showed that test performance is best when you're in the same state as when you studied and acquired the skill.

 

Additionally, in this case, I'm sure a lot of it has to do with being in a novel place, with a novel bed, and being fatigued from travel. I think anyone who has ever had to work out of a hotel in an unfamiliar place can relate.

[rluzinski]

Since 1977, home teams have won 54% of their games:

 

=0&scorediff=http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/alien.gif LINK

 

It's why I add 4% to my series win probabilities to the home team.

 

Why do they have an advantage? I remember reading that it had nothing to with the "batting second" advantage but I can't find the link and could be completely wrong. I've always attributed it to the psychological advantage.

[sbrylski]

I remember reading that it had nothing to with the "batting second" advantage but I can't find. the link and could be completely wrong.

 

Really? I expected to see at least some advantage.