ANY TEAM IN THE PLAYOFFS CAN WIN A PENNANT. THAT KIND OF EQUILIBRIUM HAS RARELY EXISTED.

UMPIRING HAS IMPROVED According to the 2011 book Scorecasting, umpires gave more favorable calls to the home team in critical situations. Pitch-tracking technology was in its infancy then. Not every ballpark had the Questec tracking system. The authors found umpires’ calls went the home team’s way only in ballparks without Questec.

Basebal l now has tracking technology everywhere, and it is the basis for how MLB grades its umpires. The new generation of men in blue has come up through the minors with tracking technology that doesn’t care where the game is played or the leverage of the situation. The umps call a purer strike zone not nearly as influenced by the game environment.

A MORE EVEN DISTRIBUTION OF TALENT Over the past 13 postseasons following full seasons, the team that enters the playoff round with the fewest wins has virtually the same chance of going to the World Series as the team with the most. The lowest seed, if you will, is 65–52 (.556) with four pennants, and the highest seed is 67–51 (.568) with five pennants. Just about any team that gets into the playoffs can win a pennant. That kind of equilibrium rarely existed in baseball or other sports before.

The 2023 Rangers stand as the perfect piece of anecdotal evidence to what is happening. They won only 90 games in the regular season. They had to play a wildcard series at Tampa Bay, which owned the best home record in the league— and swept two games. They advanced to play the Orioles, who had the best record in the league—and swept them. Facing ALCS elimination, Texas won Games 6 and 7 at Houston by a combined score of 20–6. The Rangers then took out Arizona in the World Series by winning three straight in Phoenix.

At age 21, Texas outf ielder Evan Carter became a middleof-the- order force who slashed .300/.417/. 500 in the postseason. Fellow Rangers rookie Josh Jung, 25, slashed .308/. 329/. 538.

Time and time again, with players short on postseason experience, the Rangers underscored what’s been happening for years: Home isn’t as sweet in baseball as it used to be.