Home game

Note: This page is for the standard usage of the term; for the book of the same name about the Boone family, click here.

A home game is a game which a team plays in its regular ballpark. The team is listed as the "home team", while its opponent is the "visiting team" (see Road game). A team can play its home games in more than one ballpark. For years, in the 1930s and 1940s, the Cleveland Indians staged games at both League Park and Municipal Stadium, using the larger venue only for Sunday games that were better attended. Some teams have also scheduled blocks of games at a secondary ballpark, for example the Brooklyn Dodgers who played some home games at Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City, NJ during the end of their run, or the Montreal Expos playing some games in San Juan, Puerto Rico's Hiram Bithorn Stadium in their final two seasons.

In contemporary baseball, the home team always bats last, although this was not always the case. In the 19th Century, the home team could choose to bat first, which it sometimes did in order to rattle the opposite pitcher working in an unfamiliar setting before a hostile crowd. However, teams soon realized that having the last turn at bat was a much more useful advantage than any short-term gain to be achieved by batting first, and the practice fell into disuse, before being formally banned.

In a home game, the home team benefits from the Home field advantage.

Even in a neutral-site game, there is always a pre-determined home team, which gets to bat last.

A string of home games is known as a homestand.