There’s an old adage that you only need to know three things about real estate: location, location, location.

For Game 3 of the World Series tonight, there are three critical locations you need to know about also:

LOCATION #1. Cole Hamels fastball. If Hamels can locate his fastball, he’s dominating. Last year he did and was virtually unhittable in the postseason. This year, he’s struggled with it.

According to shortstop Jimmy Rollins, “He hasn’t been able to place his fastball where he wants it. You see the catcher setting up outside, and he’s pulling the ball in. When he’s doing that, it makes his changeup a lot less effective. When he’s spotting his fastball and he can throw the changeup in the same spot 10, 12 mph slower, it becomes tough to hit. But when he’s struggling with one pitch, you can almost start cancelling out the other, and I think that’s the biggest difference.”

LOCATION #2.
Take it to The Bank. The Phillies have enjoyed home cooking, posting an 11-1 postseason record at Citizen’s Bank Park since the beginning of last year’s playoffs. The Bank is the best home field advantage in baseball.

LOCATION #3.
The seats behind home plate. New Yankee Stadium looks like a corporate shell of Old Yankee Stadium. The old place was built for the Bronx Bombers. The new digs seem to be made for the Manhattan IBMers. On television, half the seats appeared to be empty. Not exactly sure why. I’ve read different reasons for it, from overpriced tickets, to Cliff Lee’s dominant performance. But one thing you can be sure of – you won’t see empty seats in Philly.

Tags: Baseball, bronx bombers, Cole Hamels, corporate shell, critical locations, dominant performance, home field advantage, Jimmy Rollins, location location location, new yankee stadium, old adage, Phillies, playoffs, World Series, Yankees