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OT: Home Field


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With both the Dodgers and Braves bowing out of the MLB playoffs, I got to thinking about the value of the regular season in professional sports and how to provide more incentive for teams to “play hard/go all in” when it does not seem to matter.

A 27 week regular season where half of the teams are eliminated in the first three months and the teams that fight for home field go home.  If the Astros lose tonight, watch out.

Is this becoming a trend or an overreaction on my part?  Load management is the new term and I feel it’s bad for sports but is the value of home field advantage a myth?

And it’s not just baseball...

In the NBA, the ROAD team won 4/5 in the finals...

In the NFL, BOTH the Rams and Patriots won conference title games ON THE ROAD.

Thoughts?

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My thinking is that when you get to this point in the post season, the difference between the teams still alive is minimal at best. As far as the MLB goes, even the teams that finish at the bottom are just percentage points off in key stats outside of winning percentage. A bloop single or two goes a different way, and the picture looks a LOT different. Historically, hockey has been the sport where home ice has made the least amount of difference. We regularly see the top seeds lose early in the playoffs....especially my Blackhawks making history just three seasons ago by getting swept and only scoring 3 goals in the series. All it really takes is one or two guys getting hot at the right time. Sure there is the choke factor as well. Certain players have the reputation for being clutch in the playoffs, and others have the reputation of choking. Keep in mind too that the playoffs in most sports have expanded. So “back in the day”, fewer teams meant the more dominant team in the regular season was more likely to win a title. Baseball had just the pennant race and the world series. Football had no wild card round for years. Basketball was similar to baseball with just a couple of rounds. Basketball is also unusual in that it is the only sport, college level included, that does not reseed each round. Reseeding increases the chances for the top seed to win. But more teams in the playoffs also increases the odds for upsets. 
Good topic though...curious to see what others will say. 

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