Reds Round Table: The All-Star Game and Other Baseball Info

This one involves how the ASG is used as a vehicle to determine home field advantage for the World Series. As you might think, the panel simply is not in favor of this method. I also questioned if there was a better alternative. BK of Red Reporter chimes in here…

I agree that the ASG is a terrible way to determine home field for the WS, but I’m not sure what the most fair way to determine it would be. Maybe if they used the winner of the previous year’s WS? Kind of the “make it, take it” theory that a lot of us knew growing up on the playground? I think it’d work, it’d be clear cut, and would help to reinstate that AL vs. NL fire of decades past. Can you imagine (hypothetically) rooting on the Phillies or Braves in the World Series, knowing that it could possibly help your team if they win? Instead of trying to use it to force a rooting interest in an event nobody cares about, give me an incentive to support my league in an event I’m already watching. But that’s just me.

That’s an idea I have never heard, and I kinda like it, too. But I have to retrace here. I said all were in agreement about the ASG and the World Series home field. BRM’s Kerry Moss disagrees with all of us.

I don’t think there is any “right” way to determine home-field advantage in the World Series. I personally like the added “meaning” that it gives to the All Star game. I know it’s a ridiculous and perhaps “unfair” way to determine such an important thing, but as a fan. I like it.

My two cents here: If the two teams played interleague games that season, which ever team won that series. If not, best regular season record.

Topic #3 concerns what I touched on: interleague. It was simple for the panel. Are you for it or against it? Not surprisingly (again) most were not in favor of it. In fact, Red Reporter’s JinAZ put a nice spin on why he is a fan of it…and a take about the proposed addition of playoff teams (which he added on his own but felt like it should be included).

I may be in the minority among blogger-types, but I’ve always enjoyed interleague. I like seeing new teams and players from the other league. And I enjoy playing the Indians every year. And it’s fun to see teams have to adjust to a new set of rules for a handful of games, be it AL teams having to bench Travis Hafner and David Ortiz, or NL teams looking at their bench of defensive replacements and trying to find a DH in there.

Also, I love the wild card, and support adding a second one to the playoffs–especially if it screws up the wild card team’s pitching rotation for the Division Series. And I think realignment is always fun to think about, although I didn’t like the most recent proposal. But the DH sucks (see? I have some traditionalism in me!).

And you know there’s the view the “”blogger-types” have. Just like BRM’s John Heitz. This is from a post John did just last month.

… I know it exists for purely monetary reasons and as a means to expose fans to the American League but it really does change the competitive balance of the Wild Card race. I like symmetry and I am obsessive about it. I am sure the Reds ownership is thrilled to have the Red Sox, Blue Jays and Rays in town…

The Pirates and the Reds suffer the most from this schedule while St. Louis, San Fransisco and Arizona all have a considerably easier path to the wild card because of the Inter-League imbalance.

Money the main reason? Pshaw!