Friday, July 5, 2013

Should the All-Star Game Determine Home Field Advantage for the World Series?


One of the debates that has been floating around Major League Baseball for the past few years is about the All-Star game.  Currently, the winning league in the All-Star game receives home field advantage for the team they send to the World Series.  A lot of people don't like that.  They say that it puts too much pressure on the players to perform when the All-Star game should be a fun game with a low pressure environment.  So what would they do to change it?  Make winning worth nothing?  I don't see that working.  Perhaps Major League Baseball wants to be more like the National Football League.  In the NFL, a venue for the championship game, the Super Bowl is selected prior to the start of the season.  They have an 'all-star game', called the Pro Bowl, but here's the problem with that; the result of the game means nothing.  I'm pretty sure the policy is each player on the winning team receives a sum of a couple thousand dollars, while the losing team gets half the sum the winning team earned.  Take note that a few thousand dollars means absolutely nothing to NFL All-Stars who make millions and millions of dollars.  So everybody out there gives zero effort because they, "don't want to get hurt".  I watched the 2011 Pro Bowl, and instead of tackling, guys were literally hugging each other and falling to the ground.  It was obvious what they were doing, and it was BAD.  I mean, I understand not going all out 110% in the Pro Bowl because you don't want to risk injury, I get that.  But this was, like beyond football.  It was terrible.  Since then, the NFL has set penalties for any player who extremely loafs around during the Pro Bowl.  That really stinks.  If you have to punish guys for not trying, then it shows the game is worth nothing and it's not any fun to watch.  NFL Pro Bowlers are now trying a little harder during the game and not slacking off majorly, but they are not giving it 110% and going all out, and that's okay, I get that.  Why put your whole career in jeopardy over one little game that means absolutely nothing?  You see, if the NFL Pro Bowl were more like the MLB All-Star Game, then guys would actually try, and you wouldn't have to worry about punishing the ones who don't.  There have been talks of removing the Pro Bowl completely, but nobody really wants to see that happen.  It's a good experience for all the players, not only to play in the game, but just have that Pro Bowl selection status.  Now Major League Baseball is considering removing the rule that says the winning league of the All-Star Game gives their World Series team home field advantage, and that is just bizarre to me.  So then what would you make victory worth?  Nothing???  Because you would have to be blind to not see how that almost destroyed the Pro Bowl.  So if you ask me, keep it the way it is, because if you take away the home field advantage rule, you are putting the whole All-Star Game in jeopardy, and, here's one thing we can all agree on; we all love the All-Star Game.

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