All-Star Game Solution

The Sporting News was onto something when they created a 25 man All-Star roster comprising starters at every position, utility bench players and a full bullpen - rather than just having four closers. While I disagree with some of their choices, I'm coupling their All-Star selection idea with a call for a longer All-Star break to allow players to more fully recuperate during the mid-season break.

What have I come up with? I'm glad you asked ... a 7-game series to decide home field advantage in the World Series. You may be thinking "you're going to make the All-Stars play 7 games?" No, that would be something Bud Selig would come up with. I'll give a couple different options. In option A, three All-Star teams are assembled (by an impartial panel created by MLB) for each league, an A, a B, and a C squad. The A squad has the best players at each position from a given league, along with the best bench players. The B squad has the 2nd tier and the C squad has the third tier. The relief pitchers would be selected similarly, with the top closer, set-up guy, two long relievers and a specialist from each side going with squad A, the 2nd best group going with squad B, and the 3rd best group going with squad C. Seven different starting pitchers would be selected, one for each game. The A squads will play the first 3 games, the B squads will play the next two, and the C squads will play the last two. If the AL squad wins 6 of the 7, then the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th, and 7th World Series games would be in the AL park, with the NL hosting only one game, the 4th. Also, the winner of the majority of the games in the previous year's All-Star series gets to choose whether or not to have the DH used in the set the next year. Option B is similar, but the three All-Star teams would come from each of the divisions. So, there would be squads representing the AL West, Central and East and the NL West, Central and East. Under this scenario, you could either have the West always play West, Central always play Central, East always play East, rotate, or randomize it. Also, you could be systematic or random in assigning which coupling plays three games and which two only play two. I guess a third option would be to allow each of the leagues to compile the best teams ... but I shy away from that because I wouldn't want a league tanking some games to try to win others. So, for instance, the AL sending their third best team up against the NL's best so that they can send the best AL team up against the 2nd best NL team and the 2nd best AL team up against the 3rd best NL team.

How does this help the players? Currently, the break is 3 days, Monday - Wednesday. If you play in the All-Star game, you travel to the place, play on Tuesday, then travel back. Under my format of one game per day, even if you had to play the first three games, you'd get Thursday-Sunday off. If you played the middle two, you'd get Monday-Wednesday and Saturday-Sunday off. And, if you played the last two, you'd get Monday-Friday off ... that's an entire work week!

One of my concerns with the All-Star game format is that there is a lot at stake and it's not a real game situation. Brad Penny was throwing 97-99 mph last night. He never throws that hard in real games because he has to pace himself. So, the batters in the All-Star game are at a distinct disadvantage because they never get two AB's against the same guy and it's almost like facing an elite closer every inning. Sure, you get some pitchers like Kenny Rogers and Tom Glavine who don't benefit much from muscling up fastballs and trying to throw them past guys. But, what do you expect hitters to do against Halladay, Liriano, Santana, Papelbon, Jenks, Rivera, etc.? Plus, the batters in the All-Star game are used to getting 4 AB's a night, not one or two.

So, there you have it ... my solution to the All-Star game.

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• All-Star conspiracy?