A couple of years ago, Major League Baseball came up with the grand idea of having the winner of the All Star Game decide home field advantage for the World Series.
Traditionally, the All Star Game has been an over glorified exhibition game… and you know what? I liked it just fine that way… because all the super stars were on the field together playing ball in a way that wouldn’t happen the rest of the year.
What do I think of this new invention of the All Star Game ‘counting?’
Well, to be blunt, I hate it. An exhibition game deciding home field?
If we are going to have exhibition games decide home field… why don’t we just compile the National League’s record against the American League in Spring Training? The better league that Spring gets home field advantage in the next World Series. Yeah, that idea is just as ridiculous as the All Star game deciding things.
Not to mention the fact that about 90 percent of a normal MLB team has NOTHING to do with the All-Star game. Why would you reward or punish 90 percent of a team that had nothing to do with the outcome? It’s almost as absurd as rewarding home field advantage in the World Series based on who wins the Super Bowl. Crazy, I tell you. Crazy.
For instance, last year, the Cards made it to the World Series and didn’t get home field advantage because Trevor Hoffman from the San Diego Padres gave up the lead to the American League in the 2006 All Star Game. It was Hoffman’s fault and the Cards got punished for his inability to pitch in big games. (Turned out to work in our favor… but the point still remains.)
The best way to decide home field advantage? I see three possibilities:
1) Go back to the way it was: Alternate between the AL and the NL every year.
2) Reward it to the team that has the better regular season record. Let the teams in question earn it. Not just the three or four players from each team who may or may not even get in the exhibition game.
3) Now that we have inter-league play… and those games actually do count, perhaps you could award it to the league that won more games that year. (This is my least favorite solution… because you start getting back into the issue of putting your fate into what another team or set of players do.)
Regardless of the solution… the winner of the All Star game is not the best way to decide home field advantage… put the fate of the players that are involved in the World Series back in the hands of who it should’ve belonged to all along: The players themselves…
Traditionally, the All Star Game has been an over glorified exhibition game… and you know what? I liked it just fine that way… because all the super stars were on the field together playing ball in a way that wouldn’t happen the rest of the year.
What do I think of this new invention of the All Star Game ‘counting?’
Well, to be blunt, I hate it. An exhibition game deciding home field?
If we are going to have exhibition games decide home field… why don’t we just compile the National League’s record against the American League in Spring Training? The better league that Spring gets home field advantage in the next World Series. Yeah, that idea is just as ridiculous as the All Star game deciding things.
Not to mention the fact that about 90 percent of a normal MLB team has NOTHING to do with the All-Star game. Why would you reward or punish 90 percent of a team that had nothing to do with the outcome? It’s almost as absurd as rewarding home field advantage in the World Series based on who wins the Super Bowl. Crazy, I tell you. Crazy.
For instance, last year, the Cards made it to the World Series and didn’t get home field advantage because Trevor Hoffman from the San Diego Padres gave up the lead to the American League in the 2006 All Star Game. It was Hoffman’s fault and the Cards got punished for his inability to pitch in big games. (Turned out to work in our favor… but the point still remains.)
The best way to decide home field advantage? I see three possibilities:
1) Go back to the way it was: Alternate between the AL and the NL every year.
2) Reward it to the team that has the better regular season record. Let the teams in question earn it. Not just the three or four players from each team who may or may not even get in the exhibition game.
3) Now that we have inter-league play… and those games actually do count, perhaps you could award it to the league that won more games that year. (This is my least favorite solution… because you start getting back into the issue of putting your fate into what another team or set of players do.)
Regardless of the solution… the winner of the All Star game is not the best way to decide home field advantage… put the fate of the players that are involved in the World Series back in the hands of who it should’ve belonged to all along: The players themselves…
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