Road Warriors

Baseball’s summer marathon is now an autumn sprint, each play and game magnified in importance, each team eager for any edge.

Make an error in April and it is fast forgotten. Make the same error in October and the memory can last a lifetime.

Make the error on the road and it is celebrated by hostile fans. Make it at home and the hostility can be much more intense.

Home crowds do not tolerate mistakes warmly. That’s why some people insist that playing in front of them is no bargain and, in fact, would prefer to spend their time on the road.

Logic suggests that teams would be better off at home, playing in front of friendly fans, in a familiar environment. That’s why every league gives teams with the best records an edge--an extra playoff game or two at home and all the benefits that go with them.

There are some people, however, who wonder if the edge really is an edge at all. There are issues at home--ticket demands, glad-handers all around--that disappear on the road.

Also accompanying the home-field advantage is the pressure to defend that edge. Visiting teams come in with a purpose--win one game and then get out of town and maybe they won’t have to go back. It makes things more complicated for the home team.

A home-field advantage? Maybe there’s no such thing.

“That makes a ton of sense,” said Dr. Greg Buell, a sports psychologist at Wichita State. “For some teams, being on the road is easier. The bunker mentality can simplify things. Isolation and insulation can be a significant advantage. It certainly can play out that way.”

A lot depends on the individual player’s frame of mind, the personal comfort zone.

“The quality of thought processes dictate how you think and feel,” Buell said. “You can come up with issues that you think would be an advantage--sleeping in your own bed, eating at home.”

However, those advantages “can have quite the opposite effect” if the delicate balance is disturbed by other factors.

“People hang their hats on the most interesting things,” Buell said. “I’ve seen some track athletes who decide they can’t run out of certain lanes. What they think impacts on performance.”

Some athletes think they’re better off away from home.

Certainly the New York Yankees were in 1996. They lost the first two World Series games at home to Atlanta and then won the next three on the road before winning the Series in Game 6 back in the Bronx.

In 1998, the Yankees won the last two Series games on the road for a sweep against the San Diego Padres. Last year, they won the first two away from home against the Braves.

In the NHL, hockey people have talked for years about the importance of home-ice advantage. And yet, four of the last five Stanley Cups have been won by teams playing on the road.

In the last five years, home teams have never won more than 58% of NHL playoff games. In the 1997-98 season, the percentage dipped to .488, an alarming suggestion that playing at home was no help at all.

There was a time when the home ice usually made a difference. Teams were convinced there were ghosts of Stanley Cups past hovering over the ice in the Montreal Forum and Toronto’s stately Maple Leaf Gardens was an intimidating place to play.

Those rinks, for a long time impossible places for road teams to play, have been replaced by modern buildings accompanied by no excess baggage, no legend or lore.

The home-field edge is strong in the NFL, where visiting teams have won just 14 of 50 playoff games in the last five years.

In basketball, the home edge is more of a factor in the playoffs than it is in the regular season. Last season, home teams won just over 60% of games before the playoffs, but 71% in the postseason.

In the first round, the difference was even more dramatic, up to 78.8% for teams playing at home.

Of course, none of those numbers has done the Miami Heat much good.

The Heat have lost in the playoffs to the New York Knicks in each of the last three seasons, each time when they had the home-court advantage, each time losing the final game at home.

That explains why Pat Riley is another member of that increasing sports community that is not exactly convinced the home edge really is any edge at all.