This article did not need to be written. I wish Gene had just decided to write another "Cubs are big losers and are never going to win anything" article so I could have just ignored it, but I can't ignore this. Every year at World Series time some dipshit columnist writes some dipshit article about how the homefield advantage is determined by the All Star Game, and then never actually says it is stupid (simply because the columnist is too dumb to think of an alternative way to decide the winner of World Series homefield advantage), but you can tell the columnist thinks it is stupid. Well, Gene writes that type of article except manages to make it even dumber than usual.
Sure, they watched Game 1 of the Mohawk World Series. Michael Young tuned in from Dallas. Justin Morneau caught the game from Scottsdale. What, you thought they'd be watching "Knight Rider?"
Why did you feel the need to tell us what two professional baseball players were watching when the World Series was on, as if this were news? Did YOU expect they would be watching "Knight Rider," because the fact they are watching the World Series is probably not news to anyone. That's like me writing, "Philip Rivers watched the Super Bowl Sunday. Did you expect he would be watching re-runs of Suddenly Susan on Lifetime?" See, it sounds stupid.
A Texas Ranger. A Minnesota Twin. This is how it works in commissioner Bud Selig's baseball world.
Indeed, this is how Bud Selig worked out homefield advantage in the World Series. I am glad we can agree on this before we disagree later. Way to go, start with common ground, and then delve off into your Wojo-insanity later.
Two players from two different teams, neither of whom even made the postseason, could help determine the winner of the 2008 World Series.
This system is not an ideal system, I would 100% agree, but until someone thinks of something better and convinces Bud Selig to implement it, we are stuck with this system. Get over it or fix it. For God's sake, just don't write about it anymore, this is old news.
A better system would probably be the team with the best record gets homefield advantage in the World Series, and then if for some odd reason both teams have identical records, use a tiebreaker method. This is a great idea but Bud Selig wanted to make the All Star Game count for something so he tied it to the World Series. Not the most brilliant idea, but baseball did not collapse and people are still watching the All Star Game, so it is not a complete failure.
Why does the idea of a game between the National and American League determing homefield advantage in the World Series disturb everyone so much? At least there is some competition that decides it, at least some of the players involved in the game will be involved in the World Series, so it makes some sense.
Would Gene be disturbed if it was determined by a coin flip, like many things in sports are? That never bothers anyone it seems. I don't get this at all. A coin flip determines some important things in sports and it bothers no one. Why is this? Coin flips determine who gets the ball first in football and which side of the field a team wants. A coin flip is used to determine draft order in the NFL if two teams have identical records. A coin flip also determined who got homefield advantage in the one game playoffs between the White Sox and Twins this year. This bothers no one, but has nothing to do with any sporting event or anything with the sport. It is complete chance.
Say your favorite team picks 4th or 5th in the draft and you need a running back really, really badly. There is Adrian Peterson sitting there ready to be had in the 4th spot. Well, the coin flip determines that your team picks 5th and the team that won the coin flip picks 4th. They also need a running back, so they get Peterson and your favorite team is stuck with trading back in the draft or going to another less pressing need. This would alter the franchise's fortunes would it not? It was based on a motherfucking coin flip, which has nothing to do with football. Using coin flips to determine who kicks into the wind in the fourth quarter and who gets to draft in what slot bothers no one. These types of decisions can affect a team and they are based 100% on chance. Why should the winner of the All Star Game determing the team with World Series homefield advantage come under such criticism? I don't get it, at least it is based on some sort of athletic endeavors.
"At the time it didn't seem like much," said Morneau, the Twins' first baseman. "Now it seems like a big deal."
Everyone knew at the time the winner would determine which league got homefield advantage in the World Series. How did it not seem like much at the time? Why is it such a bigger deal for a player that is not even playing in the World Series? I think Justin Morneau was drunk on some beer, eh?
If you believe in home-field advantage -- and the baseball statistical seamheads certainly do -- what happened during the All-Star Game in July is a huge deal.
Statistical seamheads, go suck on Gene W's purely subjective reasoning principles for deciding everything...except in the case of the World Series where he needs hard evidence more than just one game to determine a team should have homefield advantage. I bet Gene wants a game show where each team performs in different events to prove to Gene they deserve homefield advantage in the World Series. Then he would finally rule on who gets homefield advantage based on who he thinks won. That would be so much better than an actual baseball game that determines where other baseball games will be played.
Again, the idea is not a great one, but I think it gets shitted on by too many people who have no better ideas.
In the short, unstoried history of the Rays, few players could potentially have as much of an impact on the franchise as the non-Rays, Morneau and Young.
You mean a bigger impact, other than the actual 25 members of the team that won enough ball games to win their division and have defeated two other teams in the playoffs to make it to the World Series? Also, the fact the Rays have to actually win the games at home, that would also have an impact on their history. I am not sure if Gene is aware the World Series still has to be played to determine the winner.
Without them, Game 1 might have been played in Philadelphia's Citizens Bank Park instead of Tropicana Field
Yes, then Philadelphia might have won and put Tampa in a 1-0 hole. What a big difference that All Star Game made!
whose dome roof is shaped like a turkey pot pie left in the oven too long.
So Tropicana Field should not be able to host the World Series? Please tell me Gene is not proposing we look at each team's stadium and comparing them to foods, then whichever team's stadium looks like the yummiest food, that team gets to host the World Series.
"The only thing that shocks me about this Series is that everyone is taken by surprise by the Rays," Young said. "A lot of players in the league knew Tampa was coming; it was just a matter of time. The last two years, we saw this coming."
They have sucked for 10 years, so they did have a good chance to stockpile great draft picks, and the rest of the league did know they were "coming." I think what shocked everyone is that they went from the worst team in the league to the potentially the best in one year. Usually it is a gradual process.
But Young and Morneau get an assist for what began on a July 15 night in the Bronx and finally ended in the wee hours of July 16 when Young sent a first-pitch fastball toward the glove of National League right fielder Corey Hart.
I would like to point out two things:
1. 2 of the 3 players who are mentioned in this sentence had an opportunity to participate in the playoffs and thereby could have made the World Series and affected their own fortunes. Corey Hart is on the Brewers, who lost to Philadelphia in the LDS, and Morneau plays for the Twins who played a one game playoff for the Central Division title and they lost. The game was played in Chicago? Why Chicago you ask and not Minnesota?
A motherfucking coin flip. This bothers no one.
2. This play so far has helped the Rays absolutely zero percent, because they lost Game 1.
He was facing, of all people, Phillies closer Brad Lidge,
Oh. The National League had a player for its World Series representative on the mound? So he had a chance to secure his team homefield advantage firsthand in the World Series and failed? This is really killing Gene's whole, "what an unfair way to decide" mantra.
Young was right -- it was a bang-bang play. Morneau slid in under McCann's tag. The American League won. As it turns out, so did the Rays.
They won the right to host 4 games in the World Series, not the actual World Series. The Rays have won nothing because they lost the first game of the World Series while at home. This is not a hard concept to understand.
The American League winning the All Star Game is of no benefit to the American League representative in the All Star Game. They get an advantage in playing at home for more games than the National League team. Now that the Phillies won Game 1, they now have the advantage because they have three games coming up at home...that and the fact they are closer to 4 wins, which is the amount required to win the World Series.
"Now that the two teams are there [in the World Series], looking back, I guess that was worth playing for five hours -- for the Rays," said Morneau,
It would be worth it if your team had made the World Series. Quit being a whiny bitch, eh?
who isn't a fan of the rule that gives World Series home-field advantage to the league that wins the All-Star Game.
This bothers him, but a coin flip that went against his team, that decided who got to host a one game playoff between two teams with identical records, doesn't faze him at all? If I were Justin Morneau I would be more pissed I did not get to play in the Metrodome in a one game playoff to make the playoffs because of a motherfucking coin flip, than the Rays having homefield advantage because of an actual baseball game played.
Why don't we just decide the World Series homefield advantage with a coin flip? Putting it to chance seems to bother no one.
"So even though Tampa has the [home-field] advantage, there's no guarantee."
Ex-freaking-actly. Shut up.
Kazmir earned the win in the All-Star Game. Lidge lost. In Game 1, Kazmir lost, and Lidge earned the save.
Here are the six players mentioned by Gene concerning the play that decided homefield advantage in the World Series and who they play for and how they were affected by the All Star Game win by the American League. Remember, Gene thinks this is a shitty system.
Brian McCann, Scott Kazmir, Brad Lidge, Michael Young, Justin Morneau, and Corey Hart.
Of those six players only two of them, Michael Young and Brian McCann, had no chance of making the World Series at the end of the baseball year. 2 of the players are actually playing in the World Series and had a direct effect on the All Star game's outcome. This is a horrible play to use to describe why the All Star Game should not be used to determine the owner of homefield advantage.
The All Star Game choosing who gets homefield advantage in the World Series is not ideal, but it is better than a coin flip (how do coin flips not piss more people off?), and this year the winning pitcher and losing pitcher of the All Star Game are in the World Series. So for this year, it was not a bad way to decide. Shut up Gene, you are stupid.
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