It happens every year right about now. Complaints about the All Star Game determining who will get home field advantage in the World Series. Some arguments have merit, others not so much.
Home field advantage in the Fall Classic plays a huge role in who wins and who loses. Huge. Anyone think the fact Games 6 and 7 were in St. Louis last year wasn’t a factor in with the Redbirds winning?
Didn’t think so.
In a perfect world, the better team in the World Series (i.e. the one that deserves it the most) should get the right to host Games 1, 2, 6 and 7. And that means whoever won more games during the regular season.
I think 162 games is enough of a sample size to determine who’s better.
But here’s the problem. If you take away that incentive (unfair as it may be later on) then you take away the players’ motivation to try. You take away them caring about what happens.
And if you take all that from them, what are you left with? Well, folks, you’re left with the mess that is the NFL and the ridiculous Pro Bowl.
This past winter in Hawaii fans actually booed the guys on the field for their lackluster effort. After the game the commissioner of the league, Roger Goodell, publicly said if things don’t change he could be in favor of actually getting rid of the event.
That’s how bad it is in the NFL. Heck, even in the NBA it’s purely an exhibition where no one is trying to win. It’s 5 guys on offense trying to make highlight reel dunks while the other 5 take a break on defense so they can do the same thing on the other end. Both teams end up scoring about 130 points. That’s not competition.
You don’t want this happening in baseball. It could happen too...if that motivation to win goes away.
I’m a fan. I want to see the best of the best of the best of the best compete against each other. I want to see a starter with a mid-2 ERA come in as a reliever in the 7th and have to face a stud with 20 home runs.
And I want to see them actually compete with each other and try and win.
That makes it exciting to watch.
So, even though determining who gets home field advantage in the World Series may not be the ideal way of getting these guys to care...until someone comes up with a better way...it’s the only solution.
