Congrats to Lidge. He had an extremely impressive season. Still wish he wouldn't have blown up here. According to Wikipedia: the last the home team has won the last eight World Series Game 7's (the 1982 St. Louis Cardinals, 1985 Kansas City Royals, 1986 New York Mets, 1987 and 1991 Minnesota Twins, 1997 Florida Marlins, 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks, and 2002 Anaheim Angels). The 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates are the last team to win a World Series Game 7 on the road; in contrast to the above, the Pirates' championship marked the thirteenth time in sixteen series that the road team won Game 7. Kind of interesting it was so one sided before the '80s and took a complete turn around after 1980 as far as Game 7. I still feel like putting home field advantage at stake on what's supposed to be an exhibition game is silly.
Yeah, I think that's the one subject we can all agree on. I can promise you that with few exceptions, the players honestly don't care about performance in that game. It's about the experience, not the results. As for the travel logistics of why regular season records can't be used, it again makes no sense. Media and baseball officials didn't know until after Game 7 where the World Series would start. I suppose you can make the argument that they could make reservations in both Tampa and Boston and cancel one... but if you can cancel one city, why can't you cancel two? Still don't see the logistical or planning advantage to knowing whether it's in an AL or NL park ahead of time. It seems like one of those arguments where baseball folks fall back on "it's tradition" instead of seriously thinking about it.
But really no sillier than the way it was always done prior: alternating back and forth each year. If it's left to just alternating back and forth each year, why not have them play for it in the all star game? Between the 2, I like the all star game approach.
I agree MadMax. To me though, deciding home field advantage on the outcome of the All Star Game takes away from the game being an "exhibition game". I think we've beaten this topic to the ground in the past though.
honestly, i don't care enough about it to beat it in the ground. i think the complaints about it way overstate its impact. ultimately if it's as arbitrary as every other year...then i don't care if it's as arbitrary as letting the winner of the all star game decide it.
