Boston 4
Toronto 7

In an afternoon of fireworks and faults Julio Lugo and Manny Delcarmen are the goats, but the real blame should fall on Bud Selig and MLB. On the road since going to Japan, the Red Sox looked physically and mentally tired — and it’s April. Spreading the game internationally is important, but handcuffing a team for two weeks afterwards is not an acceptable side effect.

This is a complicated issue. It’s in everyone’s best interest to increase international revenue streams. Domestic sales are approaching saturation and some growth internationally will allow the boom times of the 1990s to continue. A preseason exhibition series would be ignored and have equally negative effects. If post-season play is moved an ocean away there will be riots in the streets. Adding an exhibition series following the World Series would extend an already stretched schedule and pose injury risks. There’s an intriguing and obvious solution: play an international all-star game. MLB’s best versus Japan’s best for one game in July. Alternate home sites. Add a few days to the ASB then resume business as usual. There could even be a rotating list of opponents.

The World Series home field advantage by virtue of the ASG has benefited the American League for five consecutive seasons, but is far too arbitrary a reason for an important part of the ultimate goal. Home field advantage should go to the team with the better record or the league with a better interleague record. Most importantly, an international all-star game wouldn’t have such a skewed effect on one or two teams. Yes, players would be tired, but at least all teams would have a tired player or two. Teammates will have to pick up the slack for the following few series. One player from each team would be selected and fatigue is distributed equitably.

Players would opt out of coming. Some procedure would have to exist to prevent players from skipping the game. That touches on a larger issue; they should be killing each other to receive this honor, and the attitude of those who consistently excuse themselves is the real problem. A possible solution is to bar the absentees from appearing in the next five regular season games. Truly injured players wouldn’t mind, and healthy players would have to participate. Getting the MLBPA to sign off would require some major concessions on the owners part, but the increased revenue should start with the players. A few million bucks each should smooth this over.

If someone has to go and play an international series, at least split the burden equally.

The Red Sox welcome Kenny Rogers and the struggling Detroit Tigers to Fenway on Tuesday. This series looked a lot more challenging two weeks ago. Manny and Rogers have squared off 58 times, a .900 OPS the result. Lets get off this schnide.

Comments are closed