No baseball but the All-Star game. This Time It Counts? Bleah. Selig overreaction. If there was a tie game in 2002, and people booed, hell why not have fun with the whole exhibition thing and have the position players pitch, throwing junk out there. (Actually, I’m perfectly okay with tie games in exhibitions. But maybe that’s my football/“soccer”-fan upbringing speaking.) If you want something besides random arbitrariness to decide which league has homefield advantage, and you think “better record” doesn’t work (why does it work for the Division Series and Championship Series, but not the World Series? Are the logistics of booking hotel rooms etc. that much harder?) why not just take the league that has the winning percentage in interleague games?
With Schilling (and then Pedro, who was the alternate) and Griffey Jr. out, the All-Star Game seems somewhat poorer. I’d like to see the Clemens pitch to Piazza, though. Piazza could give him the finger to call for the fastball. :)
Random baseball fact buried in the ESPN pages: Ted Lilly’s real name is Theodore Roosevelt Lilly. Maybe his parents hoped he’d speak softly and carry a big stick?