Getty Images fileCommissioner Bud Selig and Fox television certainly like it. Playing up the “This Time it Counts” theme, the All-Star game bounced back the last two years after drawing record low ratings in 2004 and 2005.
Count Boston third baseman Mike Lowell among those who would scrap the idea.
“If it means so much to win the All-Star game, then you should just have your best nine players play all nine innings,” he said.
White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen would give the edge to the team with the best interleague record.
“It would be more fun, I think. Because one game is hard,” he said. “And now I’ll have a call from the commissioner. It’s my opinion, sir. It’s my opinion. I’m not telling you to do that.”
Anything but the current system, Konerko said.
“There’s going to be a guy there that will be on a last-place team that will have no bearing on the playoffs, and he could come in and either give up a home run or make an error in the field that could result in changing the game,” he said. “He’s just going there to enjoy the game, and in the middle of October, he’s going to get questions about a play he made that settled home-field advantage. I just don’t think that’s right.”
To St. Louis slugger Albert Pujols, the whole debate is silly.
“Who cares?” he said. “You’re in the World Series.”
Josh Hamilton fights off illness to hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the 13th inning, lifting the Texas Rangers to an 8-7 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays.
BOSTON (AP) - Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine has called out the Tampa Bay Rays' coaching staff a day after the teams were involved in a benches-clearing scrum.
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