December 01, 2016

All-Star Game No Longer Decides World Series Home Field: Major League Baseball is changing the rules for home-field advantage in the World Series. The experiment of giving it to the league that wins the All-Star Game is over. Instead, for the first time in league history, home field will go to the team with the better record.

posted by rcade to baseball at 11:53 AM - 13 comments

(Players on the winning team will be rewarded with cash bonuses, which will be, for the vast majority of them, a much bigger incentive than home-field advantage for their league's eventual champion ever was.)
I have to admit, that's probably better for everyone.

But how about this crazy idea: Game 7 is at the stadium of the team that won the last World Series. Not of the two teams who are in the World Series, mind you -- if the Red Sox and the Dodgers are in WS2017 and take it to seven, then it's played at Wrigley Field.

(I also think the Super Bowl should be played in the previous year's winner's home stadium. Imagine a Lambeau Field Super Bowl.)

posted by Etrigan at 01:12 PM on December 01, 2016

(I also think the Super Bowl should be played in the previous year's winner's home stadium. Imagine a Lambeau Field Super Bowl.)

I wouldn't go so far as to give it to last year's winner, but I don't see why it isn't acceptable to simply rotate the Super Bowl through all of the league's stadia.

To the topic of this post, quite simply, it's long overdue. There's really no explanation why it took so long to get here, but good news. I'm also amused by the part of this piece that references the other tweaks to the All Star Game to help prevent ties, as if it really should matter if the ASG ends in a tie.

posted by bender at 02:04 PM on December 01, 2016

I also think the Super Bowl should be played in the previous year's winner's home stadium. Imagine a Lambeau Field Super Bowl

So the most likely matchups this year would be the Pats or Raiders playing the Cowboys or Seahawks at Mile High?

Broncos fans would just love that.

posted by deflated at 03:06 PM on December 01, 2016

Broncos fans would just love that.

Probably not any more or less than the Texans fans actually will when it's played in Houston this February.

posted by Ufez Jones at 03:51 PM on December 01, 2016

... I don't see why it isn't acceptable to simply rotate the Super Bowl through all of the league's stadia.

The beautiful people hated Jacksonville's Super Bowl. They either stayed away or complained about the city's accommodation and parties. We still have an inferiority complex about it.

posted by rcade at 04:02 PM on December 01, 2016

Broncos fans would just love that.

Does the NFL plan to start worrying about what fans want concerning the Super Bowl?

posted by MeatSaber at 04:30 PM on December 01, 2016

Maybe someday an NFL team will win a title in its own stadium. The closest a team has come that I can think of is the Raiders and Niners winning games at either the Rose Bowl or the Stanford stadium. Not too much geographic distance there.

Sorry to hear about the hate for the Jax-hosted Super Bowl. Those not in attendance missed the Belichick-Crennel-Weis group hug and maypole dance when the outcome was assured. The absolute highlight of the careers of the latter two.

posted by beaverboard at 05:40 PM on December 01, 2016

When the Super Bowl came to Jacksonville, I was working at home and taking care of my sons while my wife worked as a local reporter.

My wife hates sports more than I love them.

She was assigned to cover the game.

So there I was at home, bitter I couldn't be at any Super Bowl-related festivities, and the phone rang. My wife had a question: "I just talked to someone named Steve Young. Is he important?" (He was announced as a Hall of Fame inductee earlier that same day, so, yeah -- kind of a big deal.)

She later got to ask Bill Belichick questions on media day. He was nice. I think he liked that none of her questions were sports-related -- she was covering the business of the game.

She also called me from the Playboy Super Bowl party.

Still bitter.

posted by rcade at 06:45 PM on December 01, 2016

She also called me from the Playboy Super Bowl party.

wifecade: "Did you know that the Bunnies really DO walk around topless all the time?"

rcade: "...."

wifecade: "Big ol' boobies, as far as the eye can see."

rcade: "....any chance you can take some p"

wifecade: "No."

posted by grum@work at 07:00 PM on December 01, 2016

We'll have to get rcade a plate of Daytona Beach Wings from the Hooters menu as a consolation prize.

Will that be for here or to go?

Meanwhile, we've got to see if we can get him into one of the upcoming sessions of Jim Harbaugh's Bitter Man Sports Seminars. He is the current king of bitter. Nobody does it better.

posted by beaverboard at 08:42 PM on December 01, 2016

The beautiful people hated Jacksonville's Super Bowl.

I lived in Jacksonville for about 6 months in 1986. I remember it as a great place to get oneself into trouble. Every few weeks my running mate and I had to drive from Cecil Field (extreme western edge of the city) to Mayport (on the ocean) to do some work aboard whatever aircraft carrier was in port. The drive took exactly 2 beers each from Cecil Field to Mayport, which left us with one more beer each to finish on our way to lunch. Lunch was a pitcher at Joanne's Chili Bordello (good looking waitresses in bustiers), and then it was time to hit the strip club. Please note this was in my "younger, drunker, stupider" days, and I was in between wives.

I have no idea why the "beautiful people" could hate a city with entertainment options like this.

posted by Howard_T at 10:55 PM on December 01, 2016

It sounds like you had more fun in Jacksonville in 6 months than I've managed in 19 years.

I didn't know we had a Chili Bordello either.

posted by rcade at 11:23 AM on December 02, 2016

I didn't know we had a Chili Bordello either.

You might have to search the newspaper morgues to find anything about it. Don't forget, this was 30 years ago. I do remember they had to fire one of the waitresses; she was 15-years-old and serving alcohol. It was that kind of place.

posted by Howard_T at 04:26 PM on December 03, 2016

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