Well here we go - the great “experiment” begins this afternoon with the All-Star selections at 7 Eastern time.
I have to admit to some concern when the decision was made in the off-season that the League that won the All-Star game would also get home field advantage in the World Series. I mean it seems a paradox - baseball never decides anything in just one game. Thats why its the World Series. It seems too much to be riding on the outcome of 9 innings.
That said, I am more excited about this “mid-summer classic” that I think I’ve ever been. Also a bit nervous. Its looking like four of my Braves will be gracing the NL line-up. I just couldn’t stand for my favorite teams players doing something (or perhaps worse NOT doing something) to cause the NL to lose.
The last two WS went 7 games and the team with home field won. The game should be great, but I still am not sure this is a good idea.
What else they need to change about the All-Star game:
Eliminate the “one player from every team” rule. It results every year in at least a couple guys on the team who shouldn’t be there. Example: Mike Williams of the Pirates. I’ve been a Pirates fan for many years, and I think he’s a pretty good closer, but an All-Star caliber pitcher? Not this season.
Cut the rosters to 25 players. It’s one game. You don’t need 32 players to get through 9 innings.You don’t need 12 pitchers on your roster.
Eliminate the stupid “World Series home field advantage” bit. Or at least shut the hell up about it in the commercials. It’s not that big a deal, especially for those of us (see the Pirates fan remark, about) whose fave teams don’t have any chance of seeing the league playoffs, let alone the World Series.
Surely there are more Doper baseball fans than JerH and I.
One last thing - anyone else think its crap that Clemmens was added into the American League roster at the last minute, bumping a deserving Barry Zito no less? I can understand that MLB wants Roger there as it may be his last season and he has made significant contributions to the game. But why do this at the last second? Why make Zito (who deserves to be there - and who was already physically in Chicago) suffer for this? I tell you, I love this game but the higher-ups in the sport really do not seem to know what the heck they are doing. Its truly sad.
My prediction : NL wins 6 to 4, thanks to a late inning bomb from Bonds.
I figured the Clemens-Zito deal was something like last year, where Zito had a start right before the break and so he wouldn’t be able to go that long anyway. If he gave up his spot, that’s ok, but if Clemens just got added at his expense, well, the Rocket hasn’t been that impressive this year, especially compared to Zito, and he has no business being there.
I figure we’ll see a better game than in the past, although I question how long some of the starters will play. I don’t see Sheffield playing more than three innings, especially with some of the outfielders on the roster. Pujols might end up at first late in the game, especially with the NL having only 2 first basemen and nine outfielders. Rolen is likely to play most of the game.
My prediction: NL wins, 9-7 in 10. Woody Williams or maybe Dontrelle Willis gets the win, with Gagne picking up the save.
An exhibition game deciding home field for the World Series is idiotic. With inter-league play, they could use the head-to-head record plus the record against common opponents, or use the overall NL vs. AL record for the season. Neither is a perfect method, but using the All-Star game makes no more sense than using the Home Run derby as the determining factor.
I think the added competition is a good thing. Last years game demonstrated the height (low) of idiocy. Baseball needs a shot (s) in the arm and this should help. I don’t believe it will be fully realized for a couple of years though. The all-star game is suppossed to be a CONTEST between the best of the two leagues that COMPETE for the world championship not just an ‘exhibition.’ Word to the multi-millionaire players - it’s show time! It’s not all just about you anymore.
If you’ve watched/listened to ESPN lately, you’ve already heard this argument. Over, and over, and over.
If the World Series home field advantage is on the line, the league should have the power to do anything it can to win. Meaning, if no one on the Expos is deemed worthy of being on the All-Star team, they they don’t get to play. First, I don’t think losing Montréal’s already pathetic fan base is gonna hurt anyone. Second, I don’t want my Giants to lose home-field advantage because Joe Schmoe from Florida choked, when Joe .468-with-runners-in-scoring-position had to sit because Schmoe had to bring in the Milwaukee crowd. That would suck doubly for the All-Star manager if they manage to return to the World Series, knowing that they basically got screwed out of HFA.
Or, we could just scratch the whole thing, maybe dangle some bonus money in front of the winning team to avoid a repeat of last year’s travesty. Instead, home field advantage goes to the team with the best freakin’ record, maybe, like the rest of the postseason? I had thought about maybe something based on interleague records, but 1-I don’t like interleague play anyway, so I sure as hell don’t want anything riding on them, and 2-you can’t have every game mean something special, the weighted schedule does that well enough already.
The pick-a-player-from-every-team crap is a disgrace that reeks of Little League. Next they’ll make sure all of the players bat each inning.
Here’s another thought: The argument for representing every team is that diong so will improve interest in the game in each city. But look at it this way: If your team is doing poorly at the break, are you going to watch the All-Star Game anyway? If you do, wouldn’t it be to watch the ALL-STARS? Why would you be more likely to watch if your Hometown Doofus was on the roster? You’ve seen him and his fellow chumps screw up for 82 games or so.
I’m not watching the game tonight, and my team’s in the thick of things. I could not possibly care less about this game.
My husband and son are on their way to the game as we speak. My son and I went to the home run derby last night and it was fun. That’s pretty much all I have to say about that.
Clemens isn’t even the best starting pitcher on the Yankees. I have nothing against all-star sendoffs to future hall-of-famers, but it could be done as a “Commissioners Pick” or some other mechanism, not by replacing a bewildered Zito for no good reason.
Prediction: AL wins 5-4. MVP to Soriano, who homers twice, once on a pitch in the dirt and the other on a pitch behind his ear.
Agree, agree, agree. #2 is why baseball’s All Star game is so awkward: really, you probably don’t need more than about 12 players and a handful of pitchers in your average regular-season game. Instead, the roster is double that. Baseball is a long-term sport, that’s why teams play three- or four-game series.
And the ONLY logical way to determine home-field advantage is the best record. That’s how the NHL, NFL (except the neutral-site Super Bowl) and NBA do it, and even the MLB does it in the rest of the playoffs. This idea is stupid.
Clemens should be there because he’s a great player in his last season (he just promised during the game, again, that he’s retiring). Witness Ripken and Gwynn making it in their last years recently, picked by the Commissioner. That would’ve worked fine. The dumping of Zito was stupid and unnecessary. HOWEVER, the New York Times is reporting this isn’t all baseball’s fault: they say A’s GM Billy Beane came up with the idea.
“After Zito tossed 106 pitches in a 1-0 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday, Billy Beane, the Athletics’ general manager, contacted Major League Baseball to report that Zito would not be available for Tuesday’s All-Star Game. Sandy Alderson, the executive vice president for baseball operations, said Beane told him that the A’s informed Zito he would be replaced.”
Mind you, this is still a total botch job.
Zito’s stats this year: 8-6, 3.28 ERA, 78 K, 7 CG, 4 SHO, 134.1 innings.
Clemens’s stats this year: 8-6, 3.68 ERA, 128 SO, 124.2 IP.
Pretty damn even. David Wells and Mike Mussina of New York are both having better years - Wells has walked SIX batters this year - though deserving players always miss the cut. But again, this should’ve been done another way.
