Is anyone else fed up with the all star game determining the world series home field advantage?

Question

I really hate this. The AL always wins the allstar game. They should go back to having the team with the better record host the WS. Anyone else with me?

Answer 1

I agree.......................... It should be nothing more than an exhibition game, fun for fans to watch, but nothing to do with anything else. Whoever finishes the season with the most wins out of the two teams in the World Series, they should have home field advantage. If they both have the same, then it should go on the winner of the last series played between the two teams, whenever that was.

Answer 2

Yes, it is silly to have home field advantage determined that way. It should go to the team with the better regular season record.

Maybe changing it would reduce interest in the All-Star game, but it would create more interest in the regular season. If a team was way ahead in its division late in the season, it could still compete with the best team in the other league for the best record in case of a potential W.S. matchup. It would be almost like an extra pennant race. The added interest there would more than outweigh the interest taken away from the All Star Game.

Actually, having home field advantage determined by the ASG is so bad, I think even a coin flip would be a better way. At least with a coin flip each team has an equal chance. If you lose, those are the breaks, at least going into it you had the same chance as the other guy. But to not have home field advantage because some other team won or lost a game 3 months previously is ludicrous.

Answer 3

Don't worry, Yankee Fan. It won't "negatively affect" you this year... the Yankees will be at home for this year's World Series - they'll be at home on their couch watching the Twins play! LOL. By the way, you get props for spelling "affects" correctly. I think 99% of Yahoo! Answers users would have written "effects" there. And that is incorrect usage. I think good grammar/spelling deserve recognition. As for your question... whether the Yankees get to the WS or not, I don't think homefield advantage is a big deal. The only time any team really gets 4 home games is if the series goes 7 games. And that hasn't happened since 2002, which was before they even instituted the homefield advantage rule. In a 4 or 6 game series, the home field is even. In a 5 game series, the other team actually has the advantage. So I think the whole to-do about the homefield advantage being determined by the AS game is way overblown. It doesn't matter that much either way.

Answer 4

MLB cannot go back to something it didn't have before. Team record was not the determinant of WS homefield.

Having the ASG decide it is lame, but is a typical Seligula ham-handed solution to a problem he caused. Players don't care about the ASG because the leagues no longer have any meaningful identity; they are just labels, like McDonald's and Burger King. Oh, there are slight differences (primarily the DH), but the distinctions are tiny and most people will never notice or care. Both serve weak, greasy, over-ketchuped burgers, tasty fries, sodas. Who really cares which door you walk in?

Someone once proposed a three-point system for determining WS HFA, two points wins:
1. All-Star Game result;
2. Comprehensive interleague play result;
3. Better record between the two league champions.

Using (3) alone isn't very good since, aside from the 18 or so games of interleague play, they don't play mutual opponents, so if one league (or really, one division) has one strong team and several doormats, that team is going to rack up the wins. Well, really, that's no better or worse than any other method -- I have yet to see any really good method proposed by anyone, particularly the "using the All-Star Game just sucks!" whiners, hint, hint -- but at least the three-point system adds some, not too much, complexity and long-lasting discussion potential, since it may not be decided until both LCS have ended.

Simply alternating leagues was fine, but after Seligula managed to destroy league identity (and he did), which compounded the players' existing disinterest, and the embarrassing 2002 tie result, he had to do something. As usual, it was something juvenile in concept and clunky in execution. He is reliable, gotta give him that.

Answer 5

Absolutely. And I thought the old way of determining home-field advantage (alternating years) was also stupid. Not quite as dumb as the All-Star rule, but close.

All other sports (with the obvious exception of football's Super Bowl) use the basic method. The team with the best record gets home field advantage. It's simple, and is as fair as it gets. Baseball just cannot seem to grasp this concept for some strange reason.

The All-Star Game should be nothing more than a showcase of the best talent both leagues have to offer.

Answer 6

No. What i am fed up with is the players' lousy attitude about playing the game. They get chosen as the games elite, yet how do they replay this honor? By making up excuses why they can't come (Manny Ramirez, *finally* played this year) or by getting injures that miraculously heal two days after the ASG. They'd rather have three days of rest.

" They should go back to having the team with the better record host the WS. "

Huh? It wasn't this way before. Home field would alternate each year.

Answer 7

I don't like it, but the old way was no better.

They never gave homefield to the best record. It was alternated between NL and AL each year.

The Twins got lucky the two years they played in the WS because it happened to be the AL's year to have homefield.

IT should strictly be the team with the best record of the two remaining. IT's that simple.

Answer 8

I'm a Twins fan - so part of the AL. Yeah, I'm not thrilled about it either. I personally would like to just leave it where it's an exibition game and let the players have fun. As a fan I like to see the players laughin and messing around. I don't want to see anybody get hurt in a game when the outcome may not even effect his team.

Answer 9

I like your idea, but I kind of like how you have to earn the home field advantage and one of the reasons the AL league wins every year is because they have a DH, which are usually better then the pitchers, because not alot of pitches are great hitters, but you knew that already.. So I think that it will continue to be like that for a really long time, so just get used to it.

Answer 10

First of all, even if we did go back to the team record thing the A.L. would always win that too!

The only team in the N.L. that can post over 90 wins are the Mets!