On August 8th of this season, the Toronto Blue Jays pulled into Los Angeles and got beat by the Dodgers, 5-1. The next night was more of the same – Dodgers 9, Blue Jays 1. On Sunday afternoon at Chavez Ravine, Toronto took a 1-0 lead on a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. double in the top of the first inning. The Dodgers got that run back in the bottom half when Shohei Ohtani homered to lead off for the hometown team. Three batters later, Freddie Freeman hit a ball over the wall in left-center, giving Los Angeles a 2-1 lead.
The Dodgers tacked on another run in the second, and Toronto got one back in the sixth. In the eighth inning, Guerrero and Addison Barger went back-to-back to give the Blue Jays a 4-3 lead. But when Jeff Hoffman walked Freeman with the bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth, the game was tied at four.
In the ninth inning, Ernie Clement homered to left off Alex Vesia, vaulting Toronto into the lead once again. Hoffman walked three batters in the bottom of the ninth around a sacrifice bunt, setting the stage for Ohtani to come to the plate with the bases loaded and one out in a one-run game. Manager John Schneider went to the bullpen and called on rookie lefty Mason Fluharty. This was his 45th career appearance; he had a 5.23 ERA; and he was facing the three-time unanimous MVP (soon to become four-time) with the game on the line. Fluharty ran the count full, and Ohtani fouled off two sweepers in the zone. On the ninth pitch of the at-bat, the rookie induced the veteran to swing over a sweeper in the dirt to record the second out of the inning.
But Fluharty was not out of the woods. Former MVP Mookie Betts came to the plate. Unfortunately for the Dodger faithful, Betts grounded softly to third to end the threat, the inning, and the game. The Dodgers hopped a bus down to Anaheim, while the Blue Jays headed home, and no one gave much thought to a harmless Sunday afternoon game in August.
But two months later, when the World Series match-up was set, and these two teams readied to face each other, it was Fluharty’s strike out of Ohtani and Betts ground out to third, and the Dodgers failure to sweep that August series against Toronto, that made all the difference. Los Angeles finished the season with a record of 93-69, while the Blue Jays did them one better: 94-68. As such, Toronto held home field advantage in the World Series, which, as we all know, went the full seven games.
Last week I wrote about the additional revenue gleaned by the Blue Jays for hosting two additional Championship Series games and two additional World Series games. Well, as a result of their loss that Sunday in August, the Dodgers lost the opportunity to host one additional World Series game. What did that cost them?
Over the three World Series games that they hosted, Los Angeles averaged 52,460 fans (Dodger Stadium is the largest ballpark in MLB). Using the same metrics utilized in the analysis of Toronto’s largesse, assume the Dodgers “comp” 5% of their tickets for VIPs and the like. That means the team lost out on just under 50,000 additional paying customers. With average ticket prices coming in at approximately $400, that is slightly under $20 million. Also, assuming about $40 per person on concessions, that is just under another $2 million. Nearly $22 million was lost because the Dodgers could not push across those two runs that warm Sunday afternoon.
But wait, there is more. Because practically everyone in Los Angeles drives to the game, the Dodgers open up their almost 20,000 parking spaces for the playoffs. And this year, they charged $70-$90 per car. If you take the average ($80), and you account for 90% capacity (at least of paying customers), that’s another $1.44 million. However, because Dodgers former owner, Frank McCourt, still has a 50% interest in the parking lots, cut that number in half, and what you get is a rookie’s salary lost (about $720,000).
The rich don’t always get richer. The Dodgers lost a game in August to a visiting team from the American League East, and, as a result, lost nearly $23 million in potential additional revenue from a fourth World Series game. Of course, no one reading this will shed a single tear for a team with a $350 million payroll, back-to-back World Series titles, and a Forbes valuation of $6.9 billion. But it is interesting nonethless.
