I was off last week so forgive me for rehashing old news, but I was struck watching the Milwaukee Brewers celebrate their first championship in franchise history while on the road at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg.
Milwaukee followed the 2024 Dodgers script in the World Series, with two close wins at home followed by a hope-crushing road win to go up 3-0 in the series. In both cases, a loss in Game 4 was followed by the series clincher in Game 5. The Brewers’ win was less in doubt than the Dodgers’
in 2024, but both achieved the same result, and shared another commonality.
Celebrating a championship on the road.
That’s been the norm of late, with only one team in the last 13 years has celebrated winning a championship in their home ballpark:
- 2014: Giants won Game 7 in Kansas City
- 2015: Royals won Game 5 in New York
- 2016: Cubs won Game 7 in Cleveland
- 2017: Astros won Game 7 in Los Angeles
- 2018: Red Sox won Game 5 in Los Angeles
- 2019: Nationals won Game 7 in Houston*
- 2020: Dodgers won Game 6 in Arlington, Texas^
- 2021: Braves won Game 6 in Houston
- 2022: Astros beat Phillies in Game 6 in Houston
- 2023: Rangers won Game 5 in Phoenix
- 2024: Dodgers won Game 5 in New York
- 2025: Dodgers won Game 7 in Toronto
- 2026: Brewers won Game 5 in St. Petersburg
*Every game of the 2019 World Series was won by the road team. Wild stuff
^Dodgers were the “home” team in Game 6 in 2020, but every game of that series was played at Globe Life Field in Texas
The only home team in the last 13 years to clinch a World Series was the Houston Astros, who beat the Philadelphia Phillies in six games in 2022, finishing things up at Minute Maid Park in Houston.
Every other title involved Major League Baseball setting up the celebratory stage on a field that was not that of the home team, though in the case of this year, Milwaukee fans traveled quite well and made the Brewers feel quite comfortable at The Trop.
The recent spate of road celebrations have titled the scales, such that in the history of the World Series, a road team clinched the Fall Classic 67 times compared to just 55 final-game home wins.
Winning any championship requires much more than merely the final game, obviously, and it feels like a pretty whiny thing to complain that a team isn’t winning its titles at home. Every title in itself is a gift, and should be appreciated in its own right.
But it’s still cool to clinch a championship at home.
When the Dodgers beat the New York Mets in the 2024 National League Championship Series, they finished things off at home, their first pennant-clincher at Dodger Stadium since 1988.
“I’ve been a part of three World Series teams and I’ve never been able to clinch at home,” Kiké Hernández said after the 2024 NLCS. “In 2020 we were wearing white when we clinched the pennant. But we weren’t at home, we were in Texas.”
The Dodgers clinched another pennant at home in 2025, sweeping the Brewers behind Shohei Ohtani’s three home runs and 10 strikeouts. Milwaukee returned the favor this year, making Dodger Stadium only the fourth ballpark in the divisional era to see a pennant clinched in three straight seasons.
“It’s always fun to clinch,” manager Dave Roberts said in 2024. “But to be able to do it at home is really special.”
The Dodgers have won three championships in the last seven seasons, but none were finished off at home in Los Angeles. They were technically the home team in Game 6 in 2020, but that was the pandemic-shortened season and the Dodgers played their NLDS, NLCS, and World Series games all at Globe Life Field in Texas. The home team and not at home.
Only once in the Dodgers’ history have they won a World Series at home. Their first title, in 1955 for Brooklyn, was finished off at Yankee Stadium in Game 7, and in 1959 in Los Angeles the World Series ended at Comiskey Park in Chicago in Game 6.
The second year of Dodger Stadium saw the only time the Dodgers clinched a World Series at home, as they swept the Yankees. Sandy Koufax struck out eight in a complete-game victory in Game 4 to close out the championship with a 2-1 win.
Other teams have won their titles at Dodger Stadium since the Dodgers last did so – the Yankees in Game 6 in 1978, the Astros in Game 7 in 2017 followed by the Red Sox in Game 5 the next year.
The Dodgers finished off the 1965 World Series in Minnesota, celebrated in 1981 at Yankee Stadium, and did the same in 1988 in Oakland, the latter courtesy of yet another Orel Hershiser complete game, before this latest run of three titles, all clinched while away from home.
But they haven’t won a World Series at home in a long time. Then again, hardly anyone has of late.
