World Series Home-Field Advantage: Lots of Options for Change
By Zac Snyder
Oct 21, 2014; Kansas City, MO, USA; Kansas City Royals and San Francisco Giants players line up on the field for the playing of the national anthem before game one of the 2014 World Series at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Peter G. Aiken-USA TODAY Sports
Alternate home-field between the leagues
The “this one counts” form of the MLB All-Star game hasn’t been well received by most fans, many of whom can’t seem to think of a worse way to determine home-field advantage for the World Series. I can…the way it was determined before that.
Every New Year’s Eve we celebrated not only the coming of a new year, but the passing of home field advantage from one league to the other. That’s right, home-field advantage simply alternated between the leagues each year.
Pros: I suppose it is clean and easy, and simple as it is, it made sense before interleague play when there was no relevance between a team record in one league compared to their World Series opponent. Even with interleague play, the amount of “cross-pollination” in opponents makes it difficult to compare records across leagues.
Cons: Fans who are against the All-Star Game determining home-field advantage for the World Series say that an exhibition game shouldn’t determine something so important. Maybe so, but at least it is an event relevant to the game rather than just a flipping of the calendar.
Next: Let team records decide