MLB World Series Home Field Advantage

01-18-03

I’m Chuck Wilson with an ESPN Radio Extra Point,
Every once and a while, someone wins support for an idea that makes you say "What could they possibly be thinking". This week, it happened with Major League Baseball. Commissioner Bud Selig somehow sold the owners on the idea of awarding home field advantage in the World Series to the league that wins the All-Star game. It is perhaps the worst idea to come along since...The Baseball Network. Look, the All-Star game is an exhibition, a showcase for the game's best players, part of a wonderful mid-summer celebration of baseball. It is treated as an exhibition game because that's what it is --- complete with "live" interviews with the players during the game. Now, baseball wants to re-capture the past when the American Leaguers and National Leaguers treated the game as a turf war. Those days are long gone and no artificial incentive can change that. Home field advantage in the World Series should be a teams' reward for better play during the regular season, not tied to the results of an All-Star exhibition. The players should vote "no" and put an end to this.
I’m Chuck Wilson