Roger Lajoie Blog: Home field advantage becoming a real weapon for Cardinals - Hamilton Cardinals

By Roger Lajoie Home field advantage is becoming quite an advantage for the Hamilton Cardinals. The Cards picked up two huge wins at The Nest this past weekend against two of the CBL's top teams in the Barrie Baycats and the Guelph Royals. That's taking advantage of home field advantage for sure. A thrilling 5-4 comeback win over the Baycats on Friday night was followed up by a 7-6 nail-biting win over the Royals on Monday afternoon. The end result - the Cards now sit in the coveted third place spot in the standings (they hold the tie-breaker with Barrie) with a 20-12 record with 16 games left to play. The top three teams get a bye this season while the fourth and fifth place teams play a single game elimination to determine the four teams that will play in the semi-finals. Hence the use of the word "coveted" to describe being in third place! Lots of baseball left of course, but the Cards are right in the thick of a pennant race, just 2 1/2 games behind London and Welland. There are lots of reasons why the Cards are having such a good season, but there's one reason that stands out in my mind. Home field advantage. Consider these numbers: 1. Cards are 13-3 in Hamilton, second best home record in the CBL, just behind London (14-3). 2. Hamilton is on a nine-game home winning streak, which includes one-run victories against Welland, Barrie, London and Guelph, the four teams they are battling for the pennant. 3. Road records of the top four teams - Welland 11-6, London 10-8, Barrie 10-6 and Hamilton...7-9. The story here is pretty clear. Cards fans - you are making a big contribution to this team's success. The Nest is becoming more and more a ballpark that visiting teams don't want to come to. The game day atmosphere is terrific. You fans are getting more and more into it. The crowds are getting bigger and louder as the season rolls along. Keep it up! Home field advantage is extremely important. The Cards obviously have a great advantage weapon when they play at Bernie Arbour Stadium. Their fans.