All Star Game Winner Will No Longer Determine Home Field Advantage in World Series

Major League Baseball and the Players’ Association have reached agreement on a new five year Collective Bargaining Agreement. This agreement will run through the 2021 baseball season. The agreement still needs to be voted on by the Players Association members, but indications are that it will sail through the ratification process. This means that baseball at the big league level will not have a work stoppage/lockout/strike for over a quarter century since the last such event cancelled the 1994 post season, including the World Series, and shortened the 1995 season to 144 games. That public relations nightmare was the last straw for many baseball fans, at least for a while, with attendance and TV ratings plummeting in the aftermath.

Baseball apparently learned its lesson after that debacle, with the two sides realizing there was plenty of money for everybody. Younger fans may not know that there were eight work stoppages in Major League Baseball between 1972 and 1994, with fans getting more disgusted with each one. Baseball apparently learned its lesson after the ‘94 debacle, with the two sides realizing there was plenty of money for everybody.

There are various provisions in the agreement regarding free agent draft pick compensation, the start of the season (moved to midweek in 2018) to accommodate more off days during the season), the disabled list ( minimum time reduced from 15 to 10 days), and a ban on new players use of smokeless tobacco, as well as some other issues that a casual fan might not notice. One that will be noticed is one that we welcome. Since 2003, the winning league in the All Star Game received home field advantage in the World Series, even though the two have nothing to do with each other. Prior to that, home field alternated between leagues. Now, the pennant winning team with the best record get home field. This year, that would have been the Cubs, but of course, the Indians got it. Still, the Cubs won the Series in seven games, even without home field advantage. We like this change. The best record counts in the rest of the baseball playoffs, so it should apply to the World Series as well.

Since it was 108 years in between World Series Championships for the Cubs, let’s take a look at them clinching it one more time: