Wednesday, July 13, 2005

AL EAST BEATS NATIONAL LEAGUE


Of the American League's 32 ABs, 17 were taken by AL East players. Of the AL's 11 hits, 7 were by AL East players. Of the 3 walks AL hitters had, 2 were by AL East players. Of the 7 runs the AL scored, 5 were scored by AL East players. Of the 7 RBI the AL had, 3 were by AL East players. Two of the biggest plays in the game were the double plays turned by Tejada and Roberts with Teixeira at first. AL East pitchers only went 2 innings in total, but one was Mariano Rivera who got the Save.

The American League is the better League this year and has been for nearly a decade. The AL won their 8th of 9 All-Star Games. The other one was the infamous tie. The AL went 136-116 (.540) in interleague play and deserve home field advantage in the World Series.

Speaking of home field advantage. Could Joe Buck and Tim McCarver please shut the F--- up about how home field advantage helped the Red Sox last year? I just don't see how it did. The Sox went 2-0 at Fenway and then 2-0 at Busch. If anything, they were more dominant at Busch than Fenway. The first game, there was actually doubt that the Sox would win. The next three games, there was no doubt at all. The Red Sox won the World Series because they dominated the Cardinals. They would have dominated them in Boston, St. Louis, New York, Tokyo, Mars, anywhere. It is just impossible for the Yankee loving Tim McCarver and the Cardinal loving Joe Buck to admit that the Red Sox were the best team last year and absolutely DOMINATED the Cardinals.

Should the All-Star game determine home field advantage? I'm going to say yes. Why? Because home field advantage doesn't matter. If you can't win on the road, you don't deserve to win. It's as simple as that. Plus, the All-Star game is now managed and played like a real game. The managers are typically managing contending teams so they want to win the game. The ratings are higher for thse games that count. That means more money and prestige for Major League Baseball. The other solutions don't make much sense. The random back and forth between AL and NL is fine but why not have something non-arbitrary to determine it? The team with the best record getting it doesn't make sense because teams play 144 of 162 games within their own league. That's about 90%. The Cardinals might get 110 wins this year in the NL because there aren't too many good teams. The White Sox, on the other hand, might get about 100 or 105 because there are alot of good teams in the AL. There is no good way to compare NL teams and AL teams.