by Jim Markley

Created on: February 07, 2009

Baseball is a quaint sport. Most of it's charm comes from the history and traditions. It took a MAJOR debate to increase the number of playoff teams to include "wild-card teams" in addition to the division winners, not to mention the hubbub when inter-league games started to take place. I believe these changes have increased interest in the game beyond the purists who would rather have two division winners play for the league pennant, followed by the World Series. That being said, playing the World Series at a neutral site would be a huge mistake.

The local fans deserve the chance to see their heroes play at home in the Championship series. It is the payoff to a long season of support and attendance. After six months, the fans have earned the right to watch their team try to win it all. True fans mark the passing of time, seasons, years, and even DECADES by where they were when their team won the World Series. Too many things have been taken away from the fans, at least the possibility of watching the series live at the home park should remain.

The finiancial ramifications are even more stark then the hit to fan loyalty. Why in the world should a neutral site garner all that extra attention and revenue? Football actually NEEDS to be played at a dome or warm weather site to protect the integrity of the game. ONE game, not possibly seven. The N.F.L. doesn't want the weather to determine its league champion. Baseball has a completely different situation. October weather is not usually as inhibiting as the 1st week of February.

One recent change that I DO take umbrage with is the silly rule that the league that wins the all-star game gets to have home field advantage in the World Series. The all-star game is an exhibition, NOT a truly competitive game. I believe that the team that has managed to put together the best record over the course of a very LONG 162 game season should receive the extra home game. It only seems fair to me.

Another issue with the whole neutral site argument is the fact that they would almost certainly use a warm weather teams facility for the World Series. What if that team happened to make the series? It would somehow be deemed as fair for one team to be at home for the ENTIRE series? That makes absolutely no sense to me at all, even less then the all-star game rule. Of course the team with such a huge advantage would probably think differently of course.

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