MLB commissioner Bud Selig’s blunder was nearly on full display Tuesday night, well, make that Wednesday morning.
Texas shortstop Michael Young and exhausted Pilly closer Bard Lidge spared Selig some embarrassment.
Young’s sacrifice fly in the 15th inning, gave the American League a 4-3 win, a mere 4-hours and 50-minutes after it started. For Lidge the sac fly was the end of insanity that saw him warm up and sit down about a half-dozen times.
The headache for both managers during this epic game was due to the fact that somebody had to win and they were both out of pitchers.
Talk about absurdity, a glorified exhibition game between a hodgepodge of stars determines who gets an advantage in October!?! What happened to the other 162 games that each team plays? They don’t really count anymore.
“This time it counts” dates back to 2003 when a terrible two-year experiment began awarding home-field advantage to the All-Star winning league. This Dr. Frankenstein-esque mistake came after Selig called the 2002 All-Star Game a tie. In part, MLB was to looking to help boost sagging TV ratings.
But it’s just more hype. If baseball were truly looking to really boost TV viewership they could try throwing out the first pitch before 8:45 ET. Isn’t All-Star weekend a great chance to attract young fans?
Baseball ought to give up on this madness. They need to follow all the other professional sports and award home-field advantage in the World Series to the team with the better regular season record.
I can’t say this would have been Selig’s biggest gaffe, but could you imagine Red Sox outfielder J.D. Drew or Mets third baseman David Wright on the mound deciding which league gets home-field advantage?
We were almost there yesterday, and it’s a ridiculous prospect.
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