In a move straight out of the Rick Reilly playbook, noted haircut Tom Verducci pulled the old double-dip on his column this week by re-writing a column he wrote last year on the same subject.*  That’s right, in keeping with his now annual tradition of bashing the existence of Domed Football stadiums and their inherent unfairness, Verducci hits all of the highlights for us:

1. A Mel Ott reference.

Last year: “Baseball players and teams are often put in the context of their homefield advantage, whether it’s Mel Ott at the Polo Grounds”
This year: “I will reveal that important edge in a minute — not to mention why Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers is the new Mel Ott — but first you have to understand the baseball perspective.”

Ah, good old Mel Ott.  A guy with a slightly higher OPS at home.  A guy who had a better BA on the road.  Man, I’ll always remember those Polo Grounds for the advantage they provided to Mel Ott.  Boy…howdy.

2. The timely, un-changingness of baseball.

Last Year: “Bear with me on this, baseball fans, because this entire week is given over to that little football game Sunday, and because you will appreciate even more that your sport enjoys a greater timelessness and connection to its history.”
This Year: “Baseball fans get the importance of context on performance — especially where the game is being played — going all the way back to the debate over what would have happened if Ted Williams were a Yankee taking aim at the rightfield short porch in the Bronx and Joe DiMaggio were a Red Sox swatting away at the Green Monster.”

If there’s one thing baseball doesn’t do, it’s change the rules.  Yup, baseball sure as hell doesn’t have two clearly different rules for the two different leagues and it clearly doesn’t modify the playoff structure as the number of teams grow.  It also doesn’t change the height of the mound when the game gets boring for lack of scoring.  Or anything.  Baseball is timeless.  Also, all existing baseball parks were made with no consideration of local weather and they are all shaped like Fenway.

3.  The double standard of baseball managers learning how to use their home-field advantage to their, uh, advantage but in football, it’s a change that shames the past.

This Year: “In baseball, artificial turf was known to create advantages for teams, such as Whitey Herzog’s running Royals and Cardinals, the Twins in the Metrodome and the Rays at Tropicana Field. Groundball hitters love the turf, which plays faster.”
Last Year: “The Minnesota Twins will lose one of the greatest homefield advantages in baseball this year when they move from the Metrodome to Target Field, an outdoor ballpark. The Metrodome’s white ceiling, fast turf and tricky lighting played havoc on opponents. The Twins played .541 baseball in the Metrodome since 1982 and .441 baseball elsewhere, a 27 percent greater home/road split than the major league average in those years.”

But, you see, baseball fans have perspective.  Unlike these Johnny Come Lately football fans who don’t know the difference between Bart Starr and Starr Jones.  Surely they should be shamed for changing the way fans enjoy the game because of the fact that it sometimes, depending on where the Super Bowl might be played in a certain year, affect the outcome in a team’s favor…in the event that they make it to the Super Bowl in the first place.  I would also like all of my readership to ignore the fact that the Packers play outside, in Wisconsin, and the fact that Aaron Rodgers might have an advantage inside of a dome in no way is at all a reflection on his impressive skillset as a QB. Continue reading →