Bronco Banter | Home field advantage in World Series should not ride on All-Star Game

By Blake Twesselman

The winner of this year's midsummer classic will determine who gets home-field advantage in the World Series.

May 1, Major League Baseball players and owners agreed on a two-year experiment that will reward the winning league in the All-Star Game with home-field advantage in the World Series, in a poor attempt to bring excitement - and more specifically television ratings - back to the All-Star Game.

Traditionally, home-field advantage in the World Series has alternated between the two leagues and has had an enormous impact on determining the winner of who has won the championship. The team with home-field advantage has won 15 of the last 17 championships and the home team has won Game 7 the last eight times.

Home-field advantage was the pivotal factor when the Twins hoisted the trophy in 1991, as the Twinkies and Braves won all their games on their home turfs. When the sixth and seventh games were played in the unfriendly confines of the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, the Braves had to deal with the complexities of tracking down routine pop-ups under the white dome ceiling while listening to thousands of screaming Minnesotans waving white handkerchiefs.

I'm sure Giants fans would argue that they could've won Game 7 last year if it was played at Pac Bell instead of in Anaheim. Home-field advantage is a too large of a prize to be riding on the All-Star game.

So why would Major League Baseball award such a prize to the winner of an exhibition game? Money. It's no secret that fans have been steadily losing interest in the mid-summer classic, as ratings slumped to an all-time low in last year's 7-7 tie in Milwaukee. Fox television, the network that has broadcasting rights to the game, was (no surprises here) one of the biggest supporters of the new rule. They believe that the new rule will intrigue fans to tune in. I seriously doubt it will change the television ratings too drastically.

I must admit that I'm usually channel surfing by the time the 5th inning rolls around, but then again, who really wants to see the middle reliever from the Brewers face Bobby Higginson? I can only imagine how many not-so-avid baseball fans turn the channel once stars like A-Rod, Barry Bonds, and Pedro Martinez have been yanked in the 3rd inning and been replaced by some players they've barely heard of.

The All-Star Game should be about the players, not the leagues. It's crazy to think that something as important as home-field advantage in the World Series is determined by a bunch of people who play for different teams. The representative for the Detroit Tigers, who doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of playing in the World Series, might determine who gets to play Game 7 at home.

I don't really care if every team gets a representative or not, and I don't really care who wins the game. I want to see Sammy Sosa crank a fastball 480 feet. I want to see Vladimir Guerrero throw someone out from deep in right field. I want to see Trevor Hoffman pitching to Alex Rodriguez in the ninth inning. I just want to see the best players in the game having fun and putting on a show. That's it.