Teams Who Won @ Home Often
Posted by Steve Lombardi on March 23, 2011
How many teams, since 1919, have won 57 games (or more) at home in a given season?
Here's the list:
.
Look at 2003. That's a lot of home team wins in the Bay Area between the Giants and A's. Ditto PA in 1977 between the Pirates and Phillies. Also NYC in 1942 between the Yankees and Dodgers.
March 23rd, 2011 at 12:37 pm
not sure if i quite understand this!! i doubt all these teams were undefeated at home, so i think im reading it wrong!!
March 23rd, 2011 at 12:45 pm
1977 Phillies scored over 10 runs 17 times!! Why dont someone do a over 10 runs in a season one???
March 23rd, 2011 at 12:47 pm
The 75 Reds did it 20 times!
March 23rd, 2011 at 1:00 pm
Yankees 10, everybody else 24 .... sounds about right ...
March 23rd, 2011 at 1:03 pm
@1, Jnolan -- The list is showing only the Wins. You can infer the losses by subtracting from 81 (for teams in the 162-game era) or from 77 (for teams in the 154-game era), though of course many teams did not play all of their scheduled games.
March 23rd, 2011 at 1:10 pm
Interestingly, the greatest team ever by winning %, the 1906 Cubs, does not make this list. They were only 56-21 at home, but 60-15 on the road!
March 23rd, 2011 at 1:11 pm
Too bad Boston in '78 couldn't have been 60. Effin' Bucky Dent!
March 23rd, 2011 at 1:12 pm
Winning at home is nice and all. But wake me up when a team comes close to the 2001 Mariners' road record of 59-22 (.728).
March 23rd, 2011 at 1:14 pm
(My bad timing strikes again, thanks to Kds....)
March 23rd, 2011 at 1:22 pm
Fewest home wins in the game-searchable era (full season):
17, by the 1939 St. Louis Browns.
Whether there is a causal connection between this fact and their home attendance of 109,159 -- and, if so, which is the cause and which the effect -- I wouldn't dare speculate.
March 23rd, 2011 at 1:27 pm
I'd like to see the biggest difference between home and road wins (or home and road winning percentage). Generally, great teams are going to win lots of games in bad places (and bad teams will lose lots of games in both places). But I'm always struck by teams with huge home/road differentials.
March 23rd, 2011 at 1:28 pm
Am I right - in that the only teams to do this since 69 and win a ring are the 98 yanks and 75 reds?
March 23rd, 2011 at 1:32 pm
Am I correct in assuming that these are regular season home games only and not postseason? If so it would be interesting to look at the numbers including postseason games.
March 23rd, 2011 at 1:55 pm
@7 Get it right- it's Bucky Effin Dent.
March 23rd, 2011 at 1:59 pm
@12 Steve: I believe the 70 Orioles, 75 Reds, 98 Yanks, and 09 Yanks are all on this list and all won the World Series.
March 23rd, 2011 at 2:01 pm
Looks like in '42 and '70 two teams from the list faced each other in the World Series
March 23rd, 2011 at 2:05 pm
John Autin {#5}:
Just a reminder that for a home winning pct. total for a pre 1961 {prior to the American League's first expansion} team, you have to divide by 77 rather than 81.
March 23rd, 2011 at 2:07 pm
@ 12 - 70 Orioles and 09 Yanks too
March 23rd, 2011 at 2:15 pm
I should have checked before I posted post #13. The answer is that the list only counts regular season home wins. Counting postseason wins probably opens a new can of worms due to expanded playoff formats, especially the advent of the Wild Card.
March 23rd, 2011 at 2:22 pm
The top 2 teams on this list that did not make the postseason are
Boston at numbers 6 and 14.
March 23rd, 2011 at 2:39 pm
It appears the 3 others are Cinci in 62, Pitt in 77 and Bro in 42.
The Dodgers won 102 in 42, Cinci won 98 and Pitt 96.
All outstanding teams as were both Bosox squads.
The Sox in 78 were clearly the second best team in all of MLB.
March 23rd, 2011 at 3:46 pm
@7 and @14
It's Effin' Bucky effin' Dent in some households.
March 23rd, 2011 at 3:52 pm
A bit surprised not to see the 1987 Twins, but I guess they only went 56-25. It was the huge home/road split that they were famous for. They went just 29-52 on the road.
Plus they went 6-0 at home in the postseason including the first 4-0/0-3 home/road split in the World Series.
March 23rd, 2011 at 5:47 pm
In some households (like mine), Bucky will be forever loved. 😉
March 23rd, 2011 at 6:01 pm
No Yankee fan here, but ... If you have an outfield fence that turns pop flies into home runs, sooner or later someone is going to break your heart by hitting a pop fly that turns into a home run.
March 23rd, 2011 at 6:07 pm
@David 23 This Cards fan may have a nightmare flashback to "Hefty bags."
March 23rd, 2011 at 7:10 pm
Two teams in the same league in the same year: 1942, Cardinals and Dodgers; 1962, Reds and Giants; 1969, Twins and Orioles; 1977, Pirates and Phillies.
March 23rd, 2011 at 7:32 pm
This can be done using the Situational Records feature (instead of Play Index), without the "since 1919" restriction. The best of the pre-1919 teams was the 1910 Cubs, 58-19. The 1909 Tigers, 1910 Athletics, and 1912 Red Sox also won 57 at home.
March 23rd, 2011 at 7:49 pm
I would be interested in "fewest home losses," or "best home winning %," as well.
March 23rd, 2011 at 9:33 pm
You can find the best winning % (as well as most wins and fewest losses) by using the situational record finder. Here are the best home winning percentages since 1901.
Generated 3/23/2011.
The highest ranked team of the 2000's is #63 overall - the 2001 Mariners who were 57-24 (.704) at home.
March 23rd, 2011 at 10:19 pm
#30, no team from the 1980s shows up in that top 20. The best home winning percentage of the 1980s was .725, by the 1985 Yankees, 58-22 at home.
March 24th, 2011 at 4:17 am
This is another instance where it serves no useful purpose to give the unadjusted stats. Why list most wins when for most of baseball history teams had 8 less games scheduled? It is like not adjusting for era or park, the former usually the bigger factor, when listing stats that measure productivity, like wOPS +.
Let us just start with home winning %. That is what is meaningful, not a list distorted by chances (games played).
March 24th, 2011 at 6:01 am
@#7 Larry R.............feeling your pain, did Joe Carter really hit that homer, was Mitch Williams really that used up, career over, by the '93 Series???? (answer, of course: yes)
March 24th, 2011 at 11:20 am
@20/ TheIronHorse Says: "The top 2 teams on this list that did not make the postseason are Boston at numbers 6 and 14."
And both times, they lost to the Yankees; in 1949, after leading by one game with two to go, and losing the final two games in Yankee Stadium; then in 1978, losing the "Bucky %@?#! Dent" playoff in Fenway Park.
March 24th, 2011 at 2:55 pm
A few thoughts:
Every team with at least 59 wins has made the playoffs or been within reach on the last day of the season.
Noting the Browns' lousy record and attendance, I'm curious about the highest and lowest ratios of attendance/wins.
Is it just me, or should it be Bucky E. Dent? Effin' starts with an E. Sox fans don't know how to do anything right...
March 26th, 2011 at 2:39 am
@35, TheGoof -- I'm not going to do the tedious research to prove it, but I'd bet that the highest ratio of attendance to wins was achieved by the 1993 Rockies, who drew almost 4.5 million and won 39 home games, or 115,000 per home win.
As for the lowest ratio ... I'm not sure how official or complete some of the attendance numbers are on B-R. (For instance, the 1935 Browns' attendance is listed as less than 81,000. But only about 1/4 of their individual home games have attendance info; the listed attendance figures (all in round numbers) add up to about 37,000.) Anyway, if we take the total attendance figure as accurate, those Browns drew a little less than 3,000 per home win. I can't imagine any team doing worse. The 1918 Braves are listed with about 84,000 season attendance, but they only won 23 home games (season shortened by WWI), so over 3,600 per home win.
March 26th, 2011 at 2:49 am
Can't believe I have to correct myself so quickly, but I just realized that the '94 Rockies drew even more fans per game than their first year (though in a shorter schedule), and won only 25 home games -- so they averaged over 131,000 per home win.
P.S. Putting the Rockies' 1993 attendance into context: Over 2.3 million fans walked out of their park after witnessing a home loss -- about the same number as went through the home turnstiles all year in 2007, when they won the pennant.
March 26th, 2011 at 3:13 am
The 1961 Yankees lost just 16 home games all year -- and 4 of those losses came in a 6-game homestand from May 12-17. They split 4 games with Detroit, then welcomed the expansion Senators to Yankee stadium by dropping a 2-game series that drew a total of 16,000 to the big ballpark.
They also had homestands of 12-0 (including a 5-game series sweep), 10-1, 9-2, and 15-4 in 17 days (including three 4-game sweeps).
March 26th, 2011 at 10:42 am
@25, I don't know why, but that's the best and funniest thing I've read in a while. Thank you.