MLB Allstar Game

In the 11th inning of the 1970 Major League Baseball Allstar game Pete Rose ran over catcher Ray Fosse in order to score the winning run. Fosse suffered a separated shoulder that went undiagnosed for the rest of the year and has been blamed for his diminished performance for the remainder of that year and the rest if his carrear. Pete Rose suffered a bruised knee and missed three games. Fans and media vilified Rose for playing to hard and causing needless injury in a meaningless exhibition game.

The 2002 MLB Allstar game was tied after 11 innings. With both teams out of substitute players available pitchers Commissioner Bud Selig called game and it ended in a tie. Fans and media vilified Selig for not making players risk injury in a meaningless exhibition game. So MLB and the players union decided to reward the winning league of the Allstar game home field advantage in the World Series.

The starting lineups for the teams are decided by fan vote so this is really not an
Allstar" game as much as it is an "allfave" game. Which is OK. Probably as it should be. The rest of the rosters are filled out by players voting. There is also a rule that every team has to have a player on the Allstar Team. So if a team does not have a player on the Allstar team by any other means the coach has to chose one of the players from that team. That happens a lot to really bad teams.

So think about this while watching the Allstar game next Tuesday. Home field advantage for the World Series could be decided by the play of a player from a team so bad that none of its players were deemed Allstar worthy by baseball fans.

Makes about as much sense as the BCS.