All-Star Winners Will Keep Home Series Advantage
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Winning the All-Star game will still be worth something in October.
Home-field advantage in the World Series this year will again go to the league that wins the July matchup, owners and players agreed yesterday.
“I don’t like it, honestly. I think it should rotate every year,” Atlanta manager Bobby Cox said before last night’s game against Toronto. “It’s still an exhibition game, any way you cut that. I agree with a lot the commissioner’s office does, but I just don’t think they should give that advantage.”
Originally a two-year experiment in 2003 to make the midsummer classic more attractive to fans and more meaningful for the teams, the idea was extended last season.
“It’s great for the game, especially the fans,”White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. “The fans don’t think it’s another exhibition game, a showcase. We played for something that helped us last year.”
The AL is currently enjoying its best run of success in All-Star play, having won eight times and tying once since the National League’s last victory in 1996.
Guillen will manage the AL team on July 11 at Pittsburgh. White Sox slugger Paul Konerko played in last year’s All-Star win.
“We definitely were hoping we would win that game because I thought it might in some remote way help us down the road, which it did,” Konerko said.
Even so, Konerko is no fan of the plan.
“I’m still a believer that it shouldn’t count,” he said. “We play 162 games that count. That’s what should decide who gets home-field advantage.”
“Some guy from some last-place team shouldn’t have to be worrying about giving up a home run and then lose the game and blow home-field advantage for his league,” he said. “The TV ratings, the money – basically, it comes down to the dollar.”
Adding extra weight to the All-Star game, however, has not helped the television ratings. Last year’s matchup in Detroit drew its worst TV number ever – surpassing the low mark set the previous season.
Baseball’s labor deal runs out after this season, and the sides may try to agree to a long-range plan tying the All-Star game to the World Series in future labor negotiations.
