The 1986 Boston Celtics and the 1987 Minnesota Twins were two of the most dominant teams at home in the history of professional sports. Both teams used their home-field advantage to catapult them to a league championship.
So which team was more dominant?
It depends on how you answer the question.
In some ways, the answer to this question seems like a no-brainer.
The 1986 Boston Celtics lost one game at home, while the 1987 Minnesota Twins lost 25 games at home. So Boston was the better home team.
End of story.
Boston wins again.
Right?
Perhaps.
But let’s dig a little deeper.
Below are the metrics for both teams.
1987 Minnesota Twins
Regular Season Home Record
Regular Season Road Record
1986 Boston Celtics
Regular Season Home Record 40-1 .975
Regular Season Road Record 27-14 .688
The differential between Minnesota’s home and road record was .333, while the Celtics differential was only .287. This means that the Metrodome had a bigger impact on the outcome of games than did the Boston Garden.
Viewing the Home Field Advantage in this light has one additional benefit. It eliminates from contention teams like the 1972 Dolphins and the 1985 Bears (and maybe the 2007-2008 New England Patriots) whose home and road differential was zero or close to zero.
So while the 1986 Boston Celtics may have been the more dominant home team, the 1987 Minnesota Twins benefited more from playing at home.
2 comments:
You ask, "Who was the Better Home Team?" Clearly the answer is the '86 Celtics. Home/Away margin is irrelevant to the question posed.
The home/road differential is irrelevant. The measure of how good a team is at home is not how much better they were at home than on the road. Your statistics only indicate that the Celtics were also a better road team than the Twins.
If a team won 4 of 10 games at home and 1 of 10 games on the road, by your logic, they would be a "better" home team than either the Celtics or the Twins.
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