This Time It Counts!

There's been a lot of sports commentary again this year about the MLB All-Star Game and Bud Selig's decision, following the Hindenbergian tied-score game of 2002, to give the winning league home field advantage in the World Series. The much-ridiculed slogan at the always-subtle FOX Broadcasting: "This Time it Counts!"

I've read several pieces on this over the last few years, including King Kaufman at Salon.com and Joe Biddle in the Nashville Tennessean, and I don't think I've seen a single defense of Selig's decision. The basic argument is that home field advantage in the World Series is just too big a prize to hinge on some dumb exhibition game that the players don't take very seriously. As a result, the WS will give a big edge to one team based arbitrarily on whether its league won the All-Star Game, which might very well have been determined by a player who had little chance of playing in the Series itself (as happened this year when Michael Young of the middling Texas Rangers had the game-winning triple). If you want the players to treat the All-Star Game like something other than a bore or a hassle--leaving for the airport after their two innings, skipping altogether on the slightest pretense, etc.--you should just go to them and say, "Hey, take this more seriously." But don't swing the World Series on such piffle.

Hmmm. . . Why don't I think that little pep talk will work? I hate to defend Bud Selig, but I gotta say, this time I think he got it right. The major problem with the hand-wringing is this: what's the alternative? Prior to Bud's decision, home field advantage in the Series alternated between the leagues. Talk about arbitrary. That may be fair to the "leagues," giving each a year of advantage, but last I looked it wasn't leagues but "teams" that actually competed in that series. And the teams that won their leagues in any given year would have absolutely zero affect on home field advantage under the old system. If I'm the Braves, and I win the NL in a year without home field, what do I care that last year's NL team had the edge? I don't, and nothing I did during the season could have any affect on whether or not I get the edge this year--it's a crap shoot.

Using the All-Star Game as the decisive factor may not be perfect, but it is certainly better than that old system where it all depended on odd vs. even calendar dates. If your team is competitive, odds are that you've got a few All-Stars. I'd guess that at least half the All-Star players think they've got a good chance at the Series, and several will make it there. Plus, the All-Star Game does give you a good sense of which league is actually better, especially when one league, the AL, is on a hot streak over a decade or so (9-0-1). If you win the penant in the tougher league, you should have home field advantage for the Series. If there's a better way to do this, I haven't heard it yet.