Hurricane Ike: Cubs vs. Houston in Milwaukee for 2 games

[Guest]

Joe Sheehan (BP) knows who to blame:

 

Prospectus Today[/url]"]There has been a lot of criticism of the fact that these games were moved to Miller Park, just an hour or so outside of Chicago, in the wake of Hurricane Ike. As someone who recognizes that the home-field advantage in MLB isn't very large, it's not a big deal to me. Most of the home-field advantage stems from the tactical advantage of batting last, and the Astros still had that. Far too much was made of the crowd makeup and the travel difference; these things are terribly minor concerns in the outcome of baseball games. No one was crossing time zones or playing in front of 55,000 hostiles.

 

There was no plan in place to harm the Astros, and the solution is the best one available under the circumstances. Had Drayton McLane and the Astros players elected to play the series beginning Friday, perhaps Tampa's Tropicana Field would have been an option. (With the wet weather across the country, a covered field would be something of a priority.) McLane held out the absurd hope that Houston would be a suitable location for baseball come Sunday, and when that was revealed to be ridiculous, he lost the right to complain about the solution handed down. The Astros players are a bit more sympathetic, as staying in Houston with their families during the storm was one reason they didn't want to play elsewhere, but again, that's the choice they made, and by making it, they lost Tampa as an option. I completely agree with how MLB handled it, and the only thing I might disagree with was that they were too accommodating. If Astros fans, the media, management, or the players themselves end up using this arrangement as an excuse, ignore them; the location of last night's game was a nonfactor in its outcome.

 

That it was played in Milwaukee, though, did provide some absurdity. On a day when the Brewers completed a rapid fall from the top of the wild-card standings—the first time since July they haven't been in sole possession of a postseason berth—more than 23,000 people in their home ballpark ended the evening cheering wildly. The contrast between the scene in the Brewers' stadium and the one you picture in their clubhouse, as they prepared to leave Philadelphia winless for the trip, is striking.