Four years ago Bud Selig made a terrible mistake, and this mistake had nothing to do with ignoring the rampant steroid problem in baseball.  Four years ago Selig overreacted to the unwarranted criticism that followed the infamous All-Star Game tie, and gave home field advantage in future World Series to the league that won the game.

This decision has taken an important strategic advantage and arbitrarily given it to one of the teams.  Home field advantage should go to the best team.  Imagine if despite finishing 8 games behind the Mavericks, the Heat were given home field advantage in the Finals because the East won the All-Star Game.  It would be so absurd Mark Cuban would develop carpal tunnel syndrome from typing so many blog entries about it. 

Making things even more nonsensical is the fact that fans vote on the All-Star Game starters.  Now think for just a second about what this means.  Fans have an effect on who hosts game 7 of the World Series.  Basically, Bud Selig has allowed fans to affect who wins the World Series by doing something other than cheering like crazy for their home team.  Why not just have fans vote at the start of the season on who should win the World Series?  It sounds preposterous, but it’s really just an ultra extreme version of what’s already going on.

The whole All-Star mess gets even worse when one realizes that the fans aren’t even capable of selecting proper rosters.  The balloting is simply tilted too much in favor of teams who draw the most fans.  Of the projected All-Star Game starters, 11 of them are on the Yankees, Red Sox, Mets or Cardinals.  Even Cardinals fans, the supposed “best and brightest” in baseball, have put Scott Rolen in the lead over Miguel Cabrera and are responsible for helping So Taguchi garner more votes than Matt Holliday or Austin Kearns. 

In my mind the man who is the biggest threat to the integrity of the game of baseball right now is no longer steroid aficionado Barry Bonds.  It’s not the free spending George Steinbrenner either.  It’s Jason Varitek.  Despite hitting .240, Varitek is looking like he’ll be a starter in July’s All-Star Game, and thus in a July exhibition game he could potentially have a role in determining who wins the World Series.

There are two things baseball should do.  First, if baseball wants to restore some integrity to the All-Star game it should end or significantly curtail ballpark voting.  No other sports league relies so heavily on in-stadium voting as baseball, and not coincidentally, no other sports league has All-Star rosters that are as heavily loaded with players from teams with the highest attendance.  When most fans fantasize about the All-Star Game, I don’t think they imagine Robinson Cano sliding past a Paul Lo Duca tag to score the go ahead run.  Baseball should make sure they don’t have to witness it either.

Second, and more importantly, it must give home field advantage in the World Series to the team with the better record.  The first time a World Series goes seven games and the better team is forced to play game seven on the road, there will be an enormous public outcry about the rule.  We’ll be subjected to ESPN talking heads complaining about how stupid the rule is, and it could very well lead to John Kruk’s head exploding on the set of Baseball Tonight.  Baseball will undoubtedly change the rule the following offseason, but there’s no reason to wait that long. Bud Selig needs to change it now and stop the impending controversy before it starts.