World Series Home-Field Advantage

The All-Star Game in baseball will be played on Tuesday. Typically in any major sport, these games and events are just for the fans, but not in baseball anymore. The winner of this game will decide which league's team will have home-field advantage in the World Series. Is it just me (don't answer that), but is this one of the dumbest ideas that Bud Selig has laid down? I know that this isn't the first year where this has taken place, but I've been blogging for less than a year, so it's the first time in my short blogger life for it to have taken place.

There's a home run derby, an old-time classics game, along with other festivities that aren't for anything but entertainment for the fans. The All-Star shenanigans in hockey are there for the fans. The Pro Bowl in football is there for the players to go to Hawaii and for entertaining the fans. Notice the trend here? It's a game made for fun! The fans even get to decide who starts in the game with votes! How about letting the fans decide if this game should decide who will hold home-field advantage in the most important series of the year?

Why put more emphasis on this one game than on the 162 regular season games? If Detroit broke the record for most regular season wins, but the National League won the All-Star game, then because of that one fun game for the fans, Detroit would not get home-field advantage in the World Series. That's ridiculous. Why should a team who holds the best record after an excruciating 162 game season be undeserving of home-field advantage throughout the playoffs (including the World Series) because of an All-Star game? Many players take All-Star games off to go on vacation, to spend with family, or to rest. These are teams composed by the fans and the managers, where minimal amounts of players have played side-by-side to one another. In other words, they're not going to have the team chemistry of a baseball team who has played 162 games together. It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to award the winner of the All-Star game with an advantage in the World Series. We should be rewarding teams based on their dedication, effort, and consistency and not on a team's luck or lack there of it for one single meaningless game.

Also, if Bud wants in on a little secret, the All-Star game and even the World Series have lost a bit of their luster because of Interleague Play. Because Interleague Play was introduced to the league, there was a certain mystery about both events, because neither league had played the other all year, but now matchups like Roger Clemens vs. Alex Rodriguez or Curt Schilling vs. Manny Ramirez aren't as compelling anymore. I don't really care about Interleague Play one way or the other, but Bud, if you're reading and what you want is for the All-Star game to be special, then you may want to think about getting rid of Interleague Play. If all you're trying to do is make up for that All-Star game tie you called a few years ago, then I suggest just letting that go and let the teams earn their World Series advantage through playing 162 games. You've more than "made up" for that mistake of yours. Now, just let it go. It'll be allright. You can do it. Oh, and Bud, I hear that David Eckstein is on steroids. You may want to check that out. By the way, if you didn't catch the sarcasm, for Eckstein fans out there, I was only kidding.