Saturday, March 22, 2008

Is there a home field advantage? You bet there is!

COMMENTARY

It is one of those commonly uttered phrases of high school sports — the home field advantage. A team might face off against a tough opponent, but "it's okay because we'll have them here at home."

Last year, a three-member panel published an article in the Journal of Sports Sciences on their study of 5,244 soccer games in the English Premiere League. The study showed not only that home teams score more points, but the bigger the crowd the more points were scored.

Visiting teams seem to have it doubly tough, as referees will also call more fouls against them. The more experienced the official, though, the more balanced their calls.

One hypothesis generated from the study is that referees are subconsciously affected by crowd noise, but experienced referees are desensitized to the roar.

Assuming the research carries over to high school sports, I think its time to call for some fresh blood to step forward to help out Smiley DeCosta, Chuck Ngo (who is reputed to have a bionic eye that can see a foul coming a minute before it happens) and the rest of the veteran officials in the area.

Being an official is a tough job. In basketball you get yelled at for making too many calls, but if you don't make the call you get yelled at for letting the game turn into a wrestling match.

I've seen people who think they can call strikes better from along the third baseline than the umpire behind the plate.

However, I can't defend the referee who missed Socorro's catch of that outfield fly ball in the game against Robertson last week — they were busy watching to see if the baserunners tagged up.

Of course, the new officials might not be intimidated by some of the local crowds.

It's one thing when you have 50,000 people screaming behind you, but 15-20 at local baseball games might not do the trick.

Now that the published study shows us that crowds likely affect officiating, and we know that officiating affects the game, maybe its time to commission a study that will show what it takes to get a crowd to show up to a game.

E-mail this story Printer-friendly version