Sports Illustrated reports on the game:
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- On a night of tricky hops, Ichiro Suzuki and the American League also bounced back to win.Instead of a Barry Bonds splash shot, the defining hit at Tuesday's All-Star game was Suzuki's inside-the-park home run, the first in the game's history.
Suzuki lined a go-ahead, two-run drive off the right-field wall in the fifth inning, Carl Crawford and Victor Martinez later hit conventional shots and the Americans made it 10 straight over the Nationals, holding on for a 5-4 victory.
BTW, what do you guys think about the "home-field advantage" for the World Series being based on the outcome of this game? Personally, I think it's stupid.
Thoughts?
Posted by anthony at July 11, 2007 09:23 AM | TrackBackI believe they do the whole home field advantage thing to make the game worth something. A few years ago the game went into a number of extra innings before Selig called the game and there was no winner. People were ticked off. So they added this home field advantage thingy. I also think it's stupid.
The whole purpose of a record coming out of the regular season is to earn a playoff spot and home field advantage. It seems to me that the team with the better record also ought to have home field in the World Series.
Posted by: Jeff Kerr at July 11, 2007 12:34 PMhow do they determine home field advantage now?
Posted by: Tyler at July 11, 2007 05:56 PMDetermined by the best record of the two teams playing each other. It's a joke that they did this to a game that is an "exibition". In the last 20 years over 80% of the teams with homefield have won.
This was a horrible idea.
kevin, agreed. Absolutely horrible!
Posted by: Anthony at July 11, 2007 07:34 PMTyler,
Right now, home field advantage in the WS is determined by the All-Star game. Whichever league wins the A-S game, the team from that league has home field advantage in the WS.
Posted by: Jeff Kerr at July 11, 2007 08:44 PMHad Larussa pinch-hit Pujols, the title of this post would be very different. :-)
Posted by: Brad at July 12, 2007 08:24 AMI think the decision to give home field advantage to the A-S winner is really unsportsmanlike. Home field advantage should be--as it used to be--based on the season record. Let the exhibition game remain an exhibition game.
Posted by: dramaturge at July 12, 2007 01:40 PMthey should let the winning league have one of their own cities host the next year (though I think they plan those things years ahead), but the home field advantage is totally bogus and wrong!
Posted by: Stephen at July 12, 2007 08:33 PMI think it's fine if the American League wins...otherwise it's lame.
Posted by: Tony Felich at July 16, 2007 01:27 AMI think this concept is just plain stupide. Best records should determine the home-field advantage. But let me say what I tell others in person. Baseball's popularity has been sagging since that early 90's strike. Moving the mound and home-run derby's don't help.
Mcguire versus Sosa was all the rage a while back, because it was bringing some attention to the sport. Not once was the roid issue brought up. Barry has embraced when he was on the single season record, but when it came down to someone else passing the revered "Babe" (and don't mean Christ at Christmas),the media said let's bring him down, the MLB media figured bad news will give us publicity.
So the home-field-via-the-All-Star-game winner is further media hype to bring attention to an almost dead and dying sport.
People are giving up big loot for PPV's of UFC, Wrestling, and heck NBA,NFL are still more exciting on their bad days, than the World Series if it was Yankees v.s. Dodgers (2 big cities in any sport is worth watching)
I still love checking the games for force of habit back in the day, but really any sport that is springboard for "poor theology" is going to lose its "swagger"! Nuff said.