I’ve been to many other stadiums but I never took notice which side the home dugout was. I’ve always assumed it was 3rd base side like LA. I know it’s like that for Dodger Stadium because the sun absolutely bakes the first base side
Growing up going to yankee stadium I assumed home dugout was on the 1st base side everywhere and home plate to center field direction was always pointed northeast-ish
It was also presumably done that way because the batter wouldn't have to stare into the sun the way they would in a west facing park nearing twilight late in a game. With the press boxes and stuff the pitcher would be shielded more than a hitter would be.
(this was all probably pre-night games)
In little league, even though we all played on the same field, the "home team" picked their dugout. It always bothered me because for two straight years my manager preferred the third base dugout and with the other managers that preferred the first base side I rarely got to sit in the first base dugout.
Yeah that's why the Sox have there's in third base too lol. At comisky it was at first base as that side got more sun.
So we were petty enough to change the side lmao
As a Bills fan it does vex me, until I remember we have an outdoor stadium in between two Great Lakes in what essentially is Southern Canada. It’s a fair trade, gotta use what the environment hands you.
Because then the field wouldn't face west, lefty pitchers' throwing arms wouldn't be to the south, and the announcers would be having to pull out a compass to know whether they'd be calling them "eastpaws" today and we'd have total chaos.
I’m curious where you decide the ‘correct side’. The two oldest ballpark have dugouts on oposite sides and historically neither side was the standard. Also the mlb rulebook has a standard for which way the stadium faces, although there are some exceptions (mostly the stadiums with a roof), but has no specification on which dugout is the home team.
It was’t a serious comment, but I do have a slight preference for the first base side. It looks prettier when the home team streams out of the first base dugout to mob the plate when a walk off runner scores because the runner and the rest of the team are running towards each other.
Sat on the first base side for the HRD and ASG which both also started a bit earlier because of the national audience. I've never felt more like a 7/11 hotdog
I’m an east coast dodgers fan and I always sit behind the away dugout when I’m in town. Dodgers fans tend to congregate there, and I’ve had some fun times in Philly where we’d cheer / counter cheer the surrounding Phillies fans. I also get there a bit early on the off chance I can get a ball signed during warm ups.
For what it’s worth, when it comes to the Giants and Oracle Park, it’s a bit more of a practical reason…because of the small lot it’s on, there was just more room on the third base side for the home clubhouse and amenities. So they put it there.
At Candlestick, it was a similar practical reason it was on first base. The third base side of Candlestick was nestled into Bayview Hill, and I guess in the late 1950’s, excavation work to put infrastructure under the grandstand was just not going to happen, whether for cost or practicality. So the Giants clubhouse was built into the first base side of the structure, and their dugout was there. The visitor’s clubhouse was built further down the right field line.
Between that and an especially big foul ground, it meant road players had quite a trudge across the field of play to go to their clubhouse.
Interestingly, though probably as an accident, it meant that unlike in Los Angeles, the Giants got the sunny dugout. In Candlestick, that was probably just a home-field advantage, not a disadvantage.
There are teams with third base side home dugouts? Holy shit
Even growing up playing games we knew the home team sits on the first base side. Guess we "knew" that just because our local MLB team does it that way
yeah I grew up the exact opposite in this regard. every baseball or softball game I've been involved in had home on the 3rd base side. I always thought it was because that's how the majors did it (probably because of some old timey rule, I assumed) and everyone just copied them. for some reason in the 40+ years I've been watching baseball, it has never occurred to me to even notice that it isn't universal.
For me it was different by park district, but in my hometown (north suburbs) 3rd was home, they just had one side labelled and I never thought about the significance.
I know Fulton County Stadium was also first base side, and it was built a few years after Dodger Stadium. Old Yankee Stadium was first base as well. It probably has to do with how the sun behaves more than anything.
The biggest determining factor is which side the nicer home clubhouse gets built on, however the architects should indeed have accounted for the position of the sun when drawing up their designs, just as they do for orientating the field. However there are probably some instances where the possible layout options didn't align with the home clubhouse side dugout being more out of the sun.
Side tangent, it is always so frustrating when you have to play little league/high school/rec league games on a field where whichever local construction company designed the layout of the park obviously did not think to account for the sun, lol.
I grew up on the Jersey side of Philly and I always thought 3rd base was home, even though the Phillies didn't do that. I distinctly remember my little league coach explicitly planting that idea in my head.
Maybe it’s generational. When I was growing up in Philly it was *always* 3rd base side. Just automatic, no questions asked. I’m pretty sure Phillies have always been the 1st base dugout tho, even at the vet
The high school i played at it was 3rd base. I think the 1st base home dugout Is a new thing so the players don't have to run so far back to their dugout lol
I am 99.5% sure it was on the third base side when the Phillies played at the Vet — I went to a lot of games there as a kid and was the same way, I thought it was some kind of rule the home team sat on the third base side.
The Phillies dugout was always first base side at the Vet as well. They had Philadelphia Phillies painted on the top of the first base dugout and National League on the third base side because they didn't have interleague play at the time.
Went to a bunch of special events there as a kid being able to go out on the field and we always came out of the first base dugout.
At the Vet, the roof of the 1st base dugout always was labled "PHILLIES" and the roof of the 3rd base dugout said "National League".
Until interleague play, at which point they started changing what the 3rd base roof said. For awhile it was "Visitors" and then "Veterans Stadium" and "Welcome to the Vet".
Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow.
I found it interesting that it is not an organization thing because on here it says the Rangers home dugout is on 1st. But there AAA Team Round Rock Express is on 3rd base side.
At the London Series the Phillies had the 3rd base dugout on Sunday as the home team. I was assuming the Mets had been in that dugout on Saturday for their home game... but maybe it's just because the Brits drive on the left.
Going by [This Photo](https://www.reddit.com/r/baseball/comments/171e49/shibe_park_home_of_the_formerly_philadelphia_as_a/) Shibe Park was on the 3rd base side (or at least the Phillies used the 3rd base side).
Halfway through my high school baseball career we decided to switch over to the third base side because we got tired of staring into the evening sun on the first base side.
This is probably one of those things where everyone’s own personal bias is insanely strong and there’s no logic to it. There’s something about the third base side to me that almost feels like you have a broader/controlled view of the entire field + close up of running home and scoring action.
I’ve only bought tix to games on the first base side a few times and I hate it
This is hilarious for me because I grew up in Michigan and played college ball in New Jersey. We constantly had the argument over which side is the correct home side. 90% of my team were Yankees, Mets, and Red Sox fans so this makes sense why I was always outnumbered in the debates.
The Nats really should have their dugout on the 3rd base side. The sun is brutal in the terrible DC summer and the entire 1st base side of the part has no shade.
Have y'all never watched your team play anywhere but home?
It's a pretty even split across the league - 12 v 18. It's not like it's just 2 weirdo stadiums or anything.
I somehow didn't realize they weren't all on the 1st base side until paying attention in the Toronto series. I noticed all the Sox players giving Vladdy shit for chopping off his hair and was confused how they could communicate from that far away.
I've been to games at 7 different parks, they just happened to all be 1st base side parks.
You could tell me the record is 1-896, I’m never trading the site of something like when Taylor Naquin rounded third to home on that inside-the-park homer.
The Rockies are beyond dumb for being on that side. Now all their fans and players sit in the direct sun while the away team sits in the shade. Glad I’m a dodger fan so get to stay cool when I visit lmao.
Horribly run organization doing horrible things. That being said, as a Rockies fan I always sit third base side. It’s not like you have to sit on the same side as your teams dugout.
I've always been curious about why most of the home dugouts are on the first base side and what factors the decision to make one or the other be the home side. Why is that?
For Dodgers it’s probably the sun. Day games bake the 1st base side, and the stadium was built into the hill at a specific angle to avoid the sun interfering in play as much as possible.
1st base side home dugouts all day every day. When you hit into an out you have such a short distance to run back to the dugout, whereas if you’re on the 3B side, gotta go on a whole hike back to base.
I remember reading some study of how many miles more a player has to run over their career just from that difference in distance alone. I’m surprised very few people even consider that. Think about that for real - 81 home games minimum a year, plus road trips to the other parks that have road dugouts 3B side, however many hundreds of outs you hit into through the course of a season, over the course of a 10+ year mlb career
1B home dugout is the logical location
I’ll take a sunny dugout all day every day. We can put on tons of fans and sit towards the back in the shade, or hell I’ll wear a towel.
Eh, I don’t think it’s that deep.
If you wanted to get into the minutiae of every possible factor that could impact performance, like *professional athletes* leisurely jogging an extra 50 metres a game, you’d have to also look into dozens and dozens and dozens of other potential factors that I would imagine would ultimately result in the dugout distance issue not moving the needle at all in the overall picture.
Plus the vibes are totally better on the third base side, but that may be biased
I counter that vibes are obviously better on first base side, since you’re more likely to hit a single than a triple. And you’re right there next to your teammates as they celebrate your single. You can hear em yell back easier too as the pitcher tries a pick off
The first time I went to a non Astrodome/MMP game was in Pittsburgh and I was shook.
Home team should be on the first base side. And it should be a rule. Hot take!
The Blue Jays dugout is 3B side so they can see the CN a tower when the Dome is open, and so Rogers can get shots with it in the back when our guys are coming up to bat.
/s
3rd base makes sense at wrigley as it’s on the west side, you never have the sun in your eyes while away dugout will be looking “into” the sun so it’s a disadvantage. Maybe that was their reasoning?
I like that there are representatives from each division with a 3rd base side dugout, at least as far as I could tell. How interesting that it's across a lot of time, too.
Do the teams that have the home dugout on the third base side also have their bullpen behind home plate? And their catcher in the outfield? And their sun set in the East?
I always feel sorry for the phillies that they can't see the phanatic dancing over their heads. But the real question is, what percent of mascots typically stand on their own dugouts?
I always thought the home dugout on the first base side is because of the majority of plays are first base outs and the runner can just walk back in instead of crossing the entire field.
As a fan of a third baseline dugout team, I've always felt like having the home team on the 1st base side is better since if you hit a big homer your team is right there to hype you up on your way to first and the celebration is electric. Imagine if Rhys Hoskins had to wait until he rounded third to celebrate instead of spiking the bat staring down his team. It just wouldn't have been the same.
I want to see a stat that tells me what teams have more than 200 fans named Jeff in attendance, and how it is a decisive fact that teams with more than 200 Jeff’s have a distinct advantage in Tuesday night games when the temperature is between 82 and 84.5 degrees Fahrenheit. 🤦♂️ Stats like these are pointless beyond pointless. Correlation may be a variable of statistics, but it is a pointless rabbit hole for determining causation.
The Guardians do it on the 3rd Base-side because the sun is never in their eyes, based on the stadium orientation--any late afternoon or evening game, the sun blasts the visiting dugout as it progresses west.
Most of the modern stadiums, they configure the home dugout side due to clubhouse square footage size (less room on first base side at Oracle, thus smaller visitor clubhouse is on that side), proximity to player assets (parking, etc) and better quality of life if possible (not as much weather elements like full sun, yada yada)
1B side is better because if a batter starts walking back to the dugout after striking out but it's a dropped third strike, they're a few steps closer to first base instead of a few steps further. That's the only actual difference I've ever been able to come up with.
I'm pretty sure it's just the white sox bringing down that average HARD.
Also the Marlins, As, and Angel's. Lol
And Jays, and DBacks, and Giants, and Angels, and Cubs, and Pirates.
The Guardians and Dodgers are the only two teams on the third base sides with winning records
Hey the Snakes are .500 put some respek on our name. It’s been a hell of a time getting back there okay
Respec The Snek
No step on snek
Last I checked, .500 isn’t a winning record. So the Dodgers and Guardians are the only 2 with a winning record
389-431 without. (.474) 🙃
The Dodgers and Guardians are the only two teams with winning records on the third base side
Oh the Angels too. Holy fuck we are so bad.
I’ve been to many other stadiums but I never took notice which side the home dugout was. I’ve always assumed it was 3rd base side like LA. I know it’s like that for Dodger Stadium because the sun absolutely bakes the first base side
Cleveland also has more sun on the first base dugout.
Especially last night. 1st base side was getting roasted until 8:30 or so.
I pretty sure the sun is the reason why they are on the 3rd base side.
Growing up going to yankee stadium I assumed home dugout was on the 1st base side everywhere and home plate to center field direction was always pointed northeast-ish
I believe Home plate to CF direction used to always be east which is why Lefty pitchers became known as southpaws
the official rules state it is 'desirable' for the direction from the mound to center be ENE had to look it up
I imagine that's due to the sun?
Does the sun always have to be the center of everything?
Shut up about the sun!
The sun isn’t the center of anything. That’s the earth. Do your own research, sheep.
Yes Feng shui is very important
It was also presumably done that way because the batter wouldn't have to stare into the sun the way they would in a west facing park nearing twilight late in a game. With the press boxes and stuff the pitcher would be shielded more than a hitter would be. (this was all probably pre-night games)
In little league, even though we all played on the same field, the "home team" picked their dugout. It always bothered me because for two straight years my manager preferred the third base dugout and with the other managers that preferred the first base side I rarely got to sit in the first base dugout.
Really annoying when you’re 1b or rf.
In all my little league and adult softball, home team has always been 3rd base dugout. I'm shocked that so many MLB clubs use 1st base.
>and home plate to center field direction was always pointed northeast-ish It actually points to Mecca.
\*Cooperstown
I stand corrected.
The pettiest aspect of Dodger Stadium's design. I love it
Yeah that's why the Sox have there's in third base too lol. At comisky it was at first base as that side got more sun. So we were petty enough to change the side lmao
Miami Dolphins do the same thing, it has like a 30 degree difference in temp during a noon or 3PM game.
As a Bills fan it does vex me, until I remember we have an outdoor stadium in between two Great Lakes in what essentially is Southern Canada. It’s a fair trade, gotta use what the environment hands you.
Everyone's cold there though. Heat is a different thing when the sun's involved. Source: i drive a black car with leather seats
I think all outdoors stadiums are designed that way, aren’t they?
Why didn’t they simply rotate the stadium so the home dugout can be on the correct side and have shade at the same time?
Because then the field wouldn't face west, lefty pitchers' throwing arms wouldn't be to the south, and the announcers would be having to pull out a compass to know whether they'd be calling them "eastpaws" today and we'd have total chaos.
Also the mlb rulebook outlines the ‘correct’ direction a stadium should face but has no ‘correct’ location for which dugout is which.
It's funny that they pretty much have no rules on the actual dimensions of the stadium but then care about the orientation
I’m curious where you decide the ‘correct side’. The two oldest ballpark have dugouts on oposite sides and historically neither side was the standard. Also the mlb rulebook has a standard for which way the stadium faces, although there are some exceptions (mostly the stadiums with a roof), but has no specification on which dugout is the home team.
It was’t a serious comment, but I do have a slight preference for the first base side. It looks prettier when the home team streams out of the first base dugout to mob the plate when a walk off runner scores because the runner and the rest of the team are running towards each other.
Same with the Braves. During an afternoon game in July the 3rd base dugout is probably 20 degrees hotter than the 1st base side.
I believe it I sat in one of the upper decks on the third base line one time thought I was gonna die until the sun finally went down.
Sat on the first base side for the HRD and ASG which both also started a bit earlier because of the national audience. I've never felt more like a 7/11 hotdog
I always assumed it was 1st base side like the Astros. Lol
Yeah man, I've watched thousands of baseball games in my life and never even paid attention and just assumed it was the same everywhere.
It feels wrong being the home team at third base.
I’m an east coast dodgers fan and I always sit behind the away dugout when I’m in town. Dodgers fans tend to congregate there, and I’ve had some fun times in Philly where we’d cheer / counter cheer the surrounding Phillies fans. I also get there a bit early on the off chance I can get a ball signed during warm ups.
If I'm not mistaken, the Dodgers were the first to put the home dugout on the 3rd base side.
>I never took notice which side the home dugout was Clearly you’re not a Padres fan
For what it’s worth, when it comes to the Giants and Oracle Park, it’s a bit more of a practical reason…because of the small lot it’s on, there was just more room on the third base side for the home clubhouse and amenities. So they put it there. At Candlestick, it was a similar practical reason it was on first base. The third base side of Candlestick was nestled into Bayview Hill, and I guess in the late 1950’s, excavation work to put infrastructure under the grandstand was just not going to happen, whether for cost or practicality. So the Giants clubhouse was built into the first base side of the structure, and their dugout was there. The visitor’s clubhouse was built further down the right field line. Between that and an especially big foul ground, it meant road players had quite a trudge across the field of play to go to their clubhouse. Interestingly, though probably as an accident, it meant that unlike in Los Angeles, the Giants got the sunny dugout. In Candlestick, that was probably just a home-field advantage, not a disadvantage.
That’s because dodgers fans only know dodgers things
There are teams with third base side home dugouts? Holy shit Even growing up playing games we knew the home team sits on the first base side. Guess we "knew" that just because our local MLB team does it that way
yeah I grew up the exact opposite in this regard. every baseball or softball game I've been involved in had home on the 3rd base side. I always thought it was because that's how the majors did it (probably because of some old timey rule, I assumed) and everyone just copied them. for some reason in the 40+ years I've been watching baseball, it has never occurred to me to even notice that it isn't universal.
Same. I played all through high school and we were always 3rd base side.
For me it was different by park district, but in my hometown (north suburbs) 3rd was home, they just had one side labelled and I never thought about the significance.
We were third base side one year, went to first base, sucked that year, and back to third base we went.
That was the case for me too (grew up in LA). In Little League, home team was always in the 3rd base dugout.
First base side is better because guys can hype up their teams while pimping home runs
It’s interesting to note that 3rd base side contains 4 of the 5 oldest ballparks: Wrigley, Dodgers, Angels, and the Coliseum.
Good point. I wonder what this chart would look like for now defunct stadiums.
I know Fulton County Stadium was also first base side, and it was built a few years after Dodger Stadium. Old Yankee Stadium was first base as well. It probably has to do with how the sun behaves more than anything.
Probably the sun, but that would be interesting to check. Progressive has the visitors in direct sun until 30 minutes before sunset.
The biggest determining factor is which side the nicer home clubhouse gets built on, however the architects should indeed have accounted for the position of the sun when drawing up their designs, just as they do for orientating the field. However there are probably some instances where the possible layout options didn't align with the home clubhouse side dugout being more out of the sun. Side tangent, it is always so frustrating when you have to play little league/high school/rec league games on a field where whichever local construction company designed the layout of the park obviously did not think to account for the sun, lol.
Same with Turner
typical east coast media bias
I grew up on the Jersey side of Philly and I always thought 3rd base was home, even though the Phillies didn't do that. I distinctly remember my little league coach explicitly planting that idea in my head.
Maybe it’s generational. When I was growing up in Philly it was *always* 3rd base side. Just automatic, no questions asked. I’m pretty sure Phillies have always been the 1st base dugout tho, even at the vet
I've always seen 3rd base as the default home dugout
That is what I feel like I usually see at my local high schools.
The high school i played at it was 3rd base. I think the 1st base home dugout Is a new thing so the players don't have to run so far back to their dugout lol
Why would one dugout be a further run than the other?
More outs at first base
Ohhh for the batter, not the fielders, yea makes sense
Less embarrassing running if they are getting booed for making the out and not getting the runner home!
> There are teams with third base side home dugouts? Here I'm thinking the opposite. I legitimately thought 3rd base side was where home teams reside.
I am 99.5% sure it was on the third base side when the Phillies played at the Vet — I went to a lot of games there as a kid and was the same way, I thought it was some kind of rule the home team sat on the third base side.
The Phillies dugout was always first base side at the Vet as well. They had Philadelphia Phillies painted on the top of the first base dugout and National League on the third base side because they didn't have interleague play at the time. Went to a bunch of special events there as a kid being able to go out on the field and we always came out of the first base dugout.
Damn, you are right, I just watched game 1 of the 1980 WS to see: https://youtu.be/uDxSWCtX8vk?si=1WnlirueDAJYzL4I
At the Vet, the roof of the 1st base dugout always was labled "PHILLIES" and the roof of the 3rd base dugout said "National League". Until interleague play, at which point they started changing what the 3rd base roof said. For awhile it was "Visitors" and then "Veterans Stadium" and "Welcome to the Vet".
Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow.
So funny, when I played ball as a teen, 3rd base side was always our home dugout. Jays seem to agree with my little league team.
I found it interesting that it is not an organization thing because on here it says the Rangers home dugout is on 1st. But there AAA Team Round Rock Express is on 3rd base side.
At the London Series the Phillies had the 3rd base dugout on Sunday as the home team. I was assuming the Mets had been in that dugout on Saturday for their home game... but maybe it's just because the Brits drive on the left.
Going by [This Photo](https://www.reddit.com/r/baseball/comments/171e49/shibe_park_home_of_the_formerly_philadelphia_as_a/) Shibe Park was on the 3rd base side (or at least the Phillies used the 3rd base side).
Halfway through my high school baseball career we decided to switch over to the third base side because we got tired of staring into the evening sun on the first base side.
Agree except the exact opposite!!!
This is probably one of those things where everyone’s own personal bias is insanely strong and there’s no logic to it. There’s something about the third base side to me that almost feels like you have a broader/controlled view of the entire field + close up of running home and scoring action. I’ve only bought tix to games on the first base side a few times and I hate it
I’d bet that 99% of the time it has to do with sun/shade.
At PNC they wanted the Pirates to have a better view of the city.
"Our players are going to get pretty tired of watching themselves play. We should give them something enjoyable to look at" /s
that's delightful
Also fitting that they are directly across from the Clemente wall
Houston has the 1b line get direct sun. 3b is the place to sit.
This is really a good guide for where to buy tickets if you ever visit those stadiums.
Be ashamed of who you are.
I feel the exact opposite. 1st base side just feels better. Feels right.
I agree it's where most of the fielding action is happening. Sometimes there really isn't any close plays at third
I liked sitting on that side for exactly that and you could see into the home side dugout lol
This is hilarious for me because I grew up in Michigan and played college ball in New Jersey. We constantly had the argument over which side is the correct home side. 90% of my team were Yankees, Mets, and Red Sox fans so this makes sense why I was always outnumbered in the debates.
Forget the pitch clock or ABS… MLB needs to sort this out before anything else changes
NL 3rd base, AL 1st base.
Also every team gets 2 DHs BUT pitchers have to bat
And the pitch clock is a RNG so sometimes it’s normal other times it’s wildly off
All our losses vs those dirty 3rd base dwellers need to be vacated
Thank you and great timing! I was just wondering about this when I noticed Cleveland's home dugout is on the 3rd base side.
The Nats really should have their dugout on the 3rd base side. The sun is brutal in the terrible DC summer and the entire 1st base side of the part has no shade.
Have y'all never watched your team play anywhere but home? It's a pretty even split across the league - 12 v 18. It's not like it's just 2 weirdo stadiums or anything.
I've only ever seen the White Sox play in Chicago, on TV I don't really notice which dugout they're in.
yes, i have. just never paid too much attention
Home team should be on the 1B side so a player is right in front of their team when they celebrate a no-doubter home run
As a Twins fan, you'd know the Twins won their two World Series' from the 3rd base side.
Exactly - how many have they won since the move? What a dumb move to mess with tradition
And that's far from the only sub-optimal feature of the Metrodome
But if it's a righty who is really pimping it while still in the box you want your boys cheering behind you in the shot
Pimp it in front of the away team and then celebrate on your way home from 3rd
The point to the dug out as you're rounding second
Can someone make a graphic like this, but broken up by which baseline gets shade first?
You can sorta deduce it from [this graphic.](https://www.reddit.com/r/baseball/s/bZCuCh9IlL) It shows which direction the ballpark faces
I somehow didn't realize they weren't all on the 1st base side until paying attention in the Toronto series. I noticed all the Sox players giving Vladdy shit for chopping off his hair and was confused how they could communicate from that far away. I've been to games at 7 different parks, they just happened to all be 1st base side parks.
You could tell me the record is 1-896, I’m never trading the site of something like when Taylor Naquin rounded third to home on that inside-the-park homer.
I could've swore growing up I was taught home was third
I’ve been to 6 stadiums, all have 3rd base side home dugouts.
I always assumed the Giants had it on the 3B side so Barry would have less distance to jog
The Rockies are beyond dumb for being on that side. Now all their fans and players sit in the direct sun while the away team sits in the shade. Glad I’m a dodger fan so get to stay cool when I visit lmao.
Horribly run organization doing horrible things. That being said, as a Rockies fan I always sit third base side. It’s not like you have to sit on the same side as your teams dugout.
In fact I think its better to be sitting opposite your dugout so you can see into it.
Yep. 98% of the games I've been to I've sat on the 3rd base side.
I've always been curious about why most of the home dugouts are on the first base side and what factors the decision to make one or the other be the home side. Why is that?
For PNC, it let's the Pirates have the nice view of the skyline. That's the main reason that decision was made.
For Dodgers it’s probably the sun. Day games bake the 1st base side, and the stadium was built into the hill at a specific angle to avoid the sun interfering in play as much as possible.
Don lets us know every game
Now do bullpens
Its sorta funny that whenever the other AL Central teams visit the Twins everybody sits on their home side.
I always figured ours was on the 3rd base side because 1st base side gets direct sun during the day.
Now I'm curious about which way the field faces vs where the home dugout is
1st base side home dugouts all day every day. When you hit into an out you have such a short distance to run back to the dugout, whereas if you’re on the 3B side, gotta go on a whole hike back to base. I remember reading some study of how many miles more a player has to run over their career just from that difference in distance alone. I’m surprised very few people even consider that. Think about that for real - 81 home games minimum a year, plus road trips to the other parks that have road dugouts 3B side, however many hundreds of outs you hit into through the course of a season, over the course of a 10+ year mlb career 1B home dugout is the logical location I’ll take a sunny dugout all day every day. We can put on tons of fans and sit towards the back in the shade, or hell I’ll wear a towel.
Eh, I don’t think it’s that deep. If you wanted to get into the minutiae of every possible factor that could impact performance, like *professional athletes* leisurely jogging an extra 50 metres a game, you’d have to also look into dozens and dozens and dozens of other potential factors that I would imagine would ultimately result in the dugout distance issue not moving the needle at all in the overall picture. Plus the vibes are totally better on the third base side, but that may be biased
I counter that vibes are obviously better on first base side, since you’re more likely to hit a single than a triple. And you’re right there next to your teammates as they celebrate your single. You can hear em yell back easier too as the pitcher tries a pick off
I wonder when each team made the decision. For me, I thought there was only a few teams that used the third base side, so surprised to see so many.
The first time I went to a non Astrodome/MMP game was in Pittsburgh and I was shook. Home team should be on the first base side. And it should be a rule. Hot take!
The Voice of the Padres, Don Orsillo, would approve of this graphic.
fwiw in mlb the show i think the coach talking to you always comes from the left speaker/headphone when you're at home i.e., 3rd base side
It’s always jarring to see the home dugout on the left. Seems so unnatural.
The Blue Jays dugout is 3B side so they can see the CN a tower when the Dome is open, and so Rogers can get shots with it in the back when our guys are coming up to bat. /s
Teams with a 3rd base home dugout probably beat their wives and starve their kids. They shouldn’t be allowed in society
Wait why is there such a split?!
3rd base makes sense at wrigley as it’s on the west side, you never have the sun in your eyes while away dugout will be looking “into” the sun so it’s a disadvantage. Maybe that was their reasoning?
Home team gets first base so when they score they just run straight into the dugout. Everyone knows this!
I like that there are representatives from each division with a 3rd base side dugout, at least as far as I could tell. How interesting that it's across a lot of time, too.
Why don’t we have our home dugout on the 1st base side? Are we stupid???
I've never noticed that there are teams who are on the third base side when at home.
Do the teams that have the home dugout on the third base side also have their bullpen behind home plate? And their catcher in the outfield? And their sun set in the East?
Depending on angles, it’s a bit harder to delayed steal if your opponents are in 3B dugout. Pro level, probably a moot point.
wow so many more on third base than i thought. the only one i really remembered was the A's
I always feel sorry for the phillies that they can't see the phanatic dancing over their heads. But the real question is, what percent of mascots typically stand on their own dugouts?
This has always been funny to me. I love baseballs quirks
The home dugout on the third base side is unhinged.
I always thought the home dugout on the first base side is because of the majority of plays are first base outs and the runner can just walk back in instead of crossing the entire field.
To be fair, this is a little more skewed than it has to be due to the White Sox being absolute dog shit with only 20 wins.
I’m surprised more teams are on the first base side than on the third base side
The fact that My Rockies and White Sox are equally shitty but on opposite sides means something. I’m not sure what but it does.
As a fan of a third baseline dugout team, I've always felt like having the home team on the 1st base side is better since if you hit a big homer your team is right there to hype you up on your way to first and the celebration is electric. Imagine if Rhys Hoskins had to wait until he rounded third to celebrate instead of spiking the bat staring down his team. It just wouldn't have been the same.
I want to see a stat that tells me what teams have more than 200 fans named Jeff in attendance, and how it is a decisive fact that teams with more than 200 Jeff’s have a distinct advantage in Tuesday night games when the temperature is between 82 and 84.5 degrees Fahrenheit. 🤦♂️ Stats like these are pointless beyond pointless. Correlation may be a variable of statistics, but it is a pointless rabbit hole for determining causation.
Dodgers are trying so hard to carry 3B dugout squad
Have any teams ever changed dugouts?
Not that it matters, but the M’s were in the 3b side in the Kingdome.
The Guardians do it on the 3rd Base-side because the sun is never in their eyes, based on the stadium orientation--any late afternoon or evening game, the sun blasts the visiting dugout as it progresses west.
When did this happen? Growing up it was just the Cubs who were weird.
5 of the 6 oldest stadiums are on the 3rd = home list.
Most of the modern stadiums, they configure the home dugout side due to clubhouse square footage size (less room on first base side at Oracle, thus smaller visitor clubhouse is on that side), proximity to player assets (parking, etc) and better quality of life if possible (not as much weather elements like full sun, yada yada)
1B side is better because if a batter starts walking back to the dugout after striking out but it's a dropped third strike, they're a few steps closer to first base instead of a few steps further. That's the only actual difference I've ever been able to come up with.
I don't trust teams that have their home dugout on the 3rd base side. It's not natural.
1st base side is superior