Home field
Nobody else is going to say it so I will: Commissioner Selig nailed it with his All-Star Game/home field advantage rule this year. It seems most observers hate this idea of his in which the league that wins the mid-summer All-Star Game gets home field advantage in the World Series in October, but I want it acknowledged that I've been on record supporting it from the beginning.Is there a large element of randomness to this policy? Of course. Ninety percent or more of All-Star Game participants in any given year don't wind up playing in that season's Fall Classic, but what critics of Selig's rule never acknowledge is that the rule prior to this one was even more random. The leagues alternated years. You can't get more random than that. Your team would hard charge into the World Series, vanquishing all foes, only to find itself starting Game 1 in Royals Stadium or that great visual insult to the people of Minnesota and all of humanity, the Metrodome, only because it happened to be an odd-numbered year.
In this year's All-Star Game, three San Francisco Giants (Melky Cabrera, Buster Posey, Pablo Sandoval) and two St. Louis Cardinals (Carlos Beltran, Yadier Molina) helped batter Detroit's Justin Verlander around in the first inning for five runs on their way to an 8-0 National League victory. The Giant's Matt Cain started for the N.L., pitching two scoreless innings and getting the win. Three months later, the Giants edge the Cardinals for the pennant, host the Detroit Tigers in Game 1 with Verlander on the mound and Sandoval homers off him twice. Matt Cain to start Game 3 in Detroit. I am officially declaring the Giants' home field advantage this year the "least random" in World Series history. And as a bonus, the All-Star Game is more entertaining and league pride is back.
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On a related note, Verlander would do well to stick with the Tigers for the duration of his career. As a Cardinals fan, I hardly ever see this guy pitch, but he's certainly the consensus "best pitcher in baseball" among your baseball media types. When I watch, though, he's getting pummeled by National League hitters. The Cardinals beat him twice in the 2006 World Series, banging out 12 hits and 7 earned runs over 11 innings. He has given up six runs and eight hits over three innings in All-Star Games (18.00 ERA) as a representative of the American League, and tonight he gave up five runs in four innings in Game 1. Another chapter in the Myth of American League Dominance.
posted by CM @ 9:08 PM
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