There are lots of subtle advantages to playing in your home park. In St. Louis the infield was very hard, except on nights when sinker baller Jerry Staley pitched. On those occasions, the grounds crew would wet down the area in front of home plate so opposing batters would beat that sinker into soft turf for easy ground balls.

Grounds crews also rebuilt the mounds after every game and could tailor the slope to fit the style of the pitcher who was starting for the home team the next game.

In Ebbets Field our bullpen was down the right-field line. The bullpen bench was against the wall, just in foul territory. The right-field fence was only 297 feet from home plate, but had a 30-foot-high screen.

The player in the bullpen who sat next to the foul line had an important daily assignment that required him to keep a towel on his lap and stay ready. With men on base for the Dodgers and less than two outs and a fly ball hit to right field, the runners couldn't tell whether the right fielder could catch the fly ball or whether it would hit the fence above him for ever the ball was going to hit the fence above the fielder, our man would wave the towel and all the runners would go. We scored many a winning run with this home-field advantage.

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