July 12, 2008
What The Players Think About The ASG Determining Home Field Advantage
Not much, according to this article via today's Globe and Mail.
A couple of the highlights:
From Boston's Mike Lowell:
"If it means so much to win the All-Star game, then you should just have your best nine players play all nine innings, he said."
From Chicago's Paul Konerko:
"There's going to be a guy there that will be on a last-place team that will have no bearing on the playoffs, and he could come in and either give up a home run or make an error in the field that could result in changing the game," he said. "He's just going there to enjoy the game, and in the middle of October, he's going to get questions about a play he made that settled home-field advantage. I just don't think that's right."
There are countless ways to determine World Series home field advantage. Using a showcase that in 2002 was deemed unimportant enough to be declared a tie and by 2004 was suddenly significant enough to provide home field advantage to a team who won seven less regular season games than their opponent is surely one of the worst of all conceivable ways.
The annual "Everyone Hates This Except For Bud Selig And Fox Sports" festival continues on Tuesday.