2003-07-16 8:17 a.m.
This Time It Counts
I think the people who run baseball are taking cues from our president. Either that or they've seen Catch Me If You Can 3 or 4 times too many. In any case, bald-faced lying without apology is the order of the day. We've heard it before with the owners' crocodile tears about "small market" teams and their supposedly nonexistent profits, and most recently it's been flying fast and thick around the All-Star game.
First there's the change this year where home-field advantage at the World Series is determined by which league wins the All-Star game. This gave Fox's obnoxious national broadcast team the opportunity to declare over and over, "This time it counts!" Supposedly this was going to stir up interest in the game and pump up ratings.
Perhaps there would be more interest if it weren't for the dodgy roster moves. Dontrelle Willis and Roger Clemens were initially not chosen to pitch. Injury to one pitcher allowed them to bring in Willis, but by all appearances, someone had to manufacture an excuse to pull Barry Zito out and put Clemens in. Clemens was more interested in spending time with his kids than going to the All-Star game, he is solidly against doing a "farewell tour" a la Ripken and McGwire, and it's been widely reported that half his team couldn't even be bothered to vote. (Mike Mussina, the player rep, and manager Joe Torre have both complained that it was rushed and the players were confused or just didn't have time in their busy schedules -- but this didn't stop the other 29 teams in the league from voting, as there was a 90% return rate leaguewide.) But none of this stopped Selig from crowing about having a hot young star and an aging warhorse, I mean, tested veteran in the game. Apparently someone who wins the Cy Young at 24 isn't enough star power for anyone but A's fans.
Then there's the question of how much deciding home-field advantage in the World Series this way "really counts." Says Jayson Stark (who fooled me into reading this by not putting a mention of Selig in the column title): The commish also continued to insist that awarding home-field advantage in the Series to the team with the best regular-season record isn't practical, because "we need 10,000-12,000 hotel rooms for the World Series, and we just can't do it in 24 hours." Now, regular-season record is determined about three weeks before the Series. If you're trying to figure out where to book your hotel rooms at the beginning of the series, if you're going by record you can safely assume that one team of the eight in contention wouldn't ever have home-field advantage, whereas if you're going by league it narrows it down to four. That still leaves you in close to the same position at the end -- making reservations for one or two matchups that won't pan out. Bud, I think you can fit all that on your credit card...
Also, you know what would really count? A-Rod mentioned it to the New York Times, while being a trouper about serving his evil masters and defending the idea that this will amp up the competitive spirit: "I remember Pete Rose running over Ray Fosse," said Rodriguez, referring to the collision from the 1970 All-Star Game. "That kind of intensity hasn't been there." Y'know why he remembers it? Because they won't let anyone forget it, since they show the clip every single year. That moment essentially ended Fosse's career in baseball, and since he's still around (as an A's broadcaster) he gets to see that clip over and over again along with the rest of us. Think they could let it drop? Naah, they'd probably make up some story on being short of All-Star archival footage or something. Sheesh.