Lowering All- Star stakes right move
League champion with best record will get Series home- field edge
The idea was ridiculed from the outset, and the slogan mocked. This time it counts. Really, no one liked the idea that the AllStar Game winner determined home- field advantage for the World Series. But you know what? It actually worked. The All- Star Game was immeasurably better after the 7- 7 tie in the 2002 All- Star Game in Milwaukee.
Players actually stuck around until the end of the game.
Managers managed the game as if it were a game that meant something.
There were players even picked for the game based on their versatility that could come in handy in the late innings.
Sure, it wasn’t perfect, but, come on, it beat the previous system when home- field advantage simply was alternated from one year to the next.
Besides, when Major League Baseball was continually asked why it couldn’t go to the team with the best record or the league that won the most games in interleague play, the response was constant from MLB officials: It can’t be done.
MLB officials insisted they needed more time. Time to set up all the accommodations needed for hotels, flights and buses. Sure, no one knew who would be playing in the World Series, but at least they could line up a scheduling of hotels depending on who reached the playoffs.
Well, magically, they no longer need that time.
MLB might have no more than 48 hours to know whether the World Series will start in the American League or National League city and will have to adjust on the fly.
Yep, no different from the NBA or NHL, which make it work.
Everyone seems thrilled that home- field advantage now will go to the World Series team with the best record.
Yet the repercussions could come as quickly as July 11, when the 2017 All- Star Game will be in Miami.
Will this become as meaningless and boring as the All- Star Games in the NBA and NHL, where no one plays defense? Will it become nothing more than a nineinning home run derby?
Surely, the executives at Fox are as curious as anyone, but MLB is hoping its new incentive will keep the players’ competitiveness nearly as fiery as a regular- season game.
Money, nothing but beautiful, green money.
Yes, there will be a pool of cash that goes to the winning players.
Sure, it might seem like pocket change to the ballplayers. Whether it’s $ 10,000, $ 25,000 or $ 50,000 per player, you can be assured this will pique their interest.
It’s the reason virtually everyone participates in March Madness pools every spring, or conducts, with great fanfare, fantasy football drafts in the dead of summer.
Or hits the golf course with something besides pride on the line every hole.
The money involved might be small, but, oh, those bragging rights will stay around all year.
The AL has won 11 of the 14 All- Star Games since 2002, but you never hear players bragging about their conquests.
Now, if you’re talking about money, ooh, boy, you’ll hear about that.
Only time will tell how the All- Star Game will be affected.
But for now, hey, if you have that 17game lead as the Chicago Cubs did in September and know that a team in the other league has nearly the same number of victories, maybe we’ll see late- season incentive for teams that clinch early?
Then again, we saw what home- field advantage meant in October for the Cleveland Indians. They lost three of four games at Progressive Field, including Game 7 to the Cubs.
The Kansas City Royals lost Game 7 at home in 2014 to the San Francisco Giants.
So perhaps the idea of home- field advantage was overrated all along.
Shhh, just don’t tell anyone.