Talk:List of neutral site regular season Major League Baseball games played in the United States and Canada

Suggestions

Some additional entries that might be included, quoted from "Fort Bragg: Baseball's best neutral sites". MLB.com. June 28, 2016. Retrieved August 11, 2021.:

• "Inclement weather has accounted for several changes of scenery, including the most recent instance in 2008 when a series between the Cubs and Astros shifted from Houston to Miller Park in Milwaukee in response to Hurricane Ike. Others were the result of stadium renovations and repairs, such as the A's playing six home games at Cashman Field in Las Vegas in 1996 when Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum underwent football renovations."

• "Baseball has often ventured into untapped markets for spring exhibitions, and at times, tested the waters for a potential relocation in regular season, like the Brooklyn Dodgers did in 1956-57, playing 15 home games at Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City, N.J."

-- Pemilligan (talk) 00:11, 11 August 2021 (UTC)

@Pemilligan

My apologies. These games are games that are marketed by MLB for revenue not for convenience. Sorry for the confusion.

-- Lawnmowerchair58

That's more confusing. Are "these games" the ones suggested above or the ones already in the article? How do we determine which are marketed for revenue and which are marketed for convenience? What does "marketed for convenience" even mean? -- Pemilligan (talk) 17:36, 13 August 2021 (UTC)

Others

I'm fairly sure there are more then these. I seem to recall opening day games being played in Japan and Australia in the last decade. Maybe another game was played in Mexico? Liberty5651 (talk) 17:06, 12 August 2021 (UTC)

@Lawnmowerchair58:

Per: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Major_League_Baseball_season The second annual Mexico Series of games featured four matchups during the season. The first featured the St. Louis Cardinals and the Cincinnati Reds at Monterrey, Mexico's Estadio de Béisbol Monterrey on April 13 and 14. The other series, also in Monterrey, featured two games between the Houston Astros and the Los Angeles Angels on May 4 and 5.[5]

The London Series featured the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox at London Stadium in London, on June 29 and 30 making it the first regular season series played in London, under a two-year commitment.[8]

Per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Major_League_Baseball_season The Minnesota Twins and the Cleveland Indians played a two-game series at Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on April 17 and 18,[4] while the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres played a three-game series at Estadio de Béisbol Monterrey in Monterrey, Mexico, from May 4 to 6.[5]

...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MLB_Japan_Opening_Series_2008

...

There was a regular season series played in Australia in 2014 (https://www.foxsports.com.au/more-sports/sydney-blue-sox-manager-says-mlb-opening-day-game-will-raise-sports-profile-in-australia/news-story/43874ed9e44776fdfdaba139e9a06b67)

...

keep going and maybe MLB played some games in Spain in the 1900s.

Liberty5651 (talk) 17:17, 12 August 2021 (UTC)

Puerto Rico, yes, but games in Japan, Australia, Mexico, London, and Spain would not go on this page. See List of Major League Baseball games played outside the United States and Canada. -- Pemilligan (talk) 17:56, 12 August 2021 (UTC)

Dodgers in Roosevelt Stadium

Is Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City really a neutral site, rather than an alternative greater New York ballfield for the home Dodgers? I don't think so. If it was, why was one of the teams always the Dodgers, and the Dodgers always being the home team.

The Indians used to split their games between League Park and Municipal Stadium. The Braves played a season in Fenway Park IIRC. And lots of teams' parks are not withing the boundaries of their city, but rather in a suburb. None of this makes these be neutral sites, and it's a pretty similar situation here. Herostratus (talk) 10:41, 22 August 2022 (UTC)

What's probably needed is a definition of neutral site. You're reasoning also could apply to the Chicago White Sox playing in Milwaukee in 1968 and 1969, or (not currently listed) the Montreal Expos playing in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 2003 and 2004 (but I see no problem with the San Juan games currently listed). Baseball-Reference.com has a Neutral site page which begins "A neutral site game occurs when it is played in a ballpark that is not the normal home of either of the two teams involved" though it doesn't define normal home. -- Pemilligan (talk) 16:09, 22 August 2022 (UTC)

Dodgers in Jersey City (and White Sox in Milwaukee/Expos in San Juan) are alternate home parks, not neutral sites. O.N.R. ^(talk) 20:10, 22 August 2022 (UTC)

How should we distinguish between an alternate home park and a neutral site? We need some sort of definition. -- Pemilligan (talk) 03:31, 23 August 2022 (UTC)

Yes, but I don't think we are going to find one, unless we dig up something from MLB. We're going to have to figure it out ourselves. That's OK. We have articles where we define what rubric we're using and say up front "Some people say X, some say Y; for the purposes of this article, we say X". And lots of others where we just decide what goes in a list without saying anything. Is Nobody Home a Killers album or a Jenk Jenkins solo album and so on. Matter of opinion, decide on the talk page. We do this all the time.

It is true that Baseball Reference says "A neutral site game occurs when it is played in a ballpark that is not the normal home of either of the two teams involved", but that's just some random civilian writing on a wiki. So let's see... The Boston Red Sox played Sunday games at the Boston Braves' field from 1929 to 1932 (the Indians also played some games in League Park for several years). Nobody thinks that these games were a neutral site. However, it's hard to exactly say why they weren't. Well, let's see... Maybe this is the correct rubric:

1) There's no need to artificially designate who is the home team. It's obvious. The games are played as part of their home stand. MLB didn't have to decide who would be the home team.

2) The fans are going to be pretty much supporting the home team as much as if they played in their home park. This is generally obvious.

The first matters because the advantage of batting last is not negligible. The second matters because crow support also isn't.

For the 1956 Dodger games in New Jersey and the 1968-69 White Sox games in Milwaukee, it's pretty clear that the Dodgers and White Sox were considered the home team at the time, because they were always the designated home team, as all the games were played during their home stands, and crowd support would have mostly been for them. Also the 2007-08 Devil Rays games in Lake Buena Vista.

I suppose this also applies to the Marlins playing in San Juan. I guess. For various reasons, I'm not 100% sure of that. San Juan is pretty far from Miami, and lots of Puerto Ricans have attachments to New York City. But I'm pretty sure that these also were not neutral-site games. Herostratus (talk) 03:54, 25 August 2022 (UTC)

1890s Cleveland Spiders

From a quick count, the Spiders played 16 "home" games at neutral sites in 1898 and one in 1899. Owing to the unusual circumstances surrounding the team, should these count? O.N.R. ^(talk) 17:06, 3 September 2022 (UTC)

I'm wary of adding anything prior of the 20th century. -- Pemilligan (talk) 17:49, 3 September 2022 (UTC)

Why? Herostratus (talk) 03:08, 23 July 2023 (UTC)

Spin off MLB Specialty Games?

As discussed earlier on this talk page, this list is now dominated by games that are clearly at an alternate home site, much closer to the home team’s home market than to the away team’s. Modern games, that the MLB now calls “Specialty Games” (although that term is rarely used by fans or media), are more clearly intended to be neutral in the sense that they attract fans living far from both the home and away teams. Thoughts about deleting the alternate home site games, such as the White Sox playing in Milwaukee or the Brooklyn Dodgers playing in Jersey City, and renaming the page to MLB Specialty Games, making the page more unambiguously centered on the modern games that MLB brands as specialty events? White 720 (talk) 23:27, 18 February 2024 (UTC)

I'm a little confused as to your intent. You title this Spin off MLB Specialty Games? and then you propose renaming the page to MLB Specialty Games. Those sound like opposing proposals.

Just as we've left out the Expos in Puerto Rico, I can see removing the White Sox in Milwaukee and the Dodgers in Jersey City. On the other hand, I wouldn't want to remove the Cubs @ the Astros being moved to Milwaukee, or the Yankees @ the Rays being moved to the Mets home field, both of which were due to hurricanes. Beyond that, I don't see the need to focus this on MLB Specialty Games. -- Pemilligan (talk) 00:48, 19 February 2024 (UTC)

Sorry for the confusion! My intention was to split the alternate home site games into a separate article, but I am also OK with deleting them. The name of this article is quite long, and although MLB Specialty Games redirects to it, I wonder whether it should be the primary title, with older neutral site games mentioned in a history section. White 720 (talk) 02:24, 20 February 2024 (UTC)

A separate article for alternate or temporary home ballparks sounds good to me. I don't favor renaming this article to MLB Specialty Games because those are a subset of what's been listed here. -- Pemilligan (talk) 02:28, 24 February 2024 (UTC)

Move discussion in progress

There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Major League Baseball which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 13:51, 7 May 2024 (UTC)