MLB is the only sport having a best of 7 series that the home advantage is not given to the team with the best record in the league.  Even worse is the 2 – 3 – 2 format!

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I hate the 2 – 3 – 2 format for the ALCS/NLCS plus the World Series Formats. 

To me it is complete lunacy that a team with a far better record in the regular season has to play 3 of their first 5 games on  the road in the LCS matchups.

Oh.. yeah, if your league wins the ALL – Star Game in July, you also have to go on the road for 3 of the 1st 5 games…Don’t even get me started on that topic.  Another time and another rant for that cupcake. 

The American League won this year ALL – Star  game 3 – 0 to secure home field advantage in a 2 – 3 – 2 Series Format for the 2013 World Series. I think they should amend this format to have it 3 – 3 – 1. Having the Non – Home Field Advantage club be able to split the 1st 2 games away – and then sweep the next 3 at home is ludicrous.  How fair is it that the Red Sox may win the thing in 5 games – and have to play 3 of the games in Busch?

Look I understand it is all about having less travel days and that will never change.  The MLB season is long enough.

Here is a concept though – why don’t you use a 3 – 3 – 1 format.

When it comes time to play 3 games like this, it is actually most relevant to the regular season as you can ever see.

It feeds both beasts.  You have two 3 game series in the first 6 games.  This would further the home field advantage in the LCS.

Picture the team actually sweeping another club would have 3 games to 1 in their home park – instead of a 2 – 2 concept.

I may make an argument that winning the ALL – Star Game might actually be a bad thing. 

Not so much for hosting Game #7, because there has only been one Game #7 since its implementation, however that the fans of the winning club in the ALL – Star Game – have actually seen less home games in the last 10 years. 

The odds actually point to the winning team playing less games in the Series.

Since the implementation of the “This Game Will mean something again?” there have been 10 World Series played.

Now while the team winning the ALL – Star Game is 7 -3 overall in the World Series itself (on the heels of a 4 game winning streak), only 1 team has actually had to use Game #7 for home field advantage. That was the 2011 St. Louis Cardinals.

There have been 4 Sweeps, 3 series ended in 5 games, 2 series in 6 games, and only one in 7 games.

In 2003, the Yankees had the best record and they both played 3 games in each others field.

In 2004, Each club played 2 games each in their home park.

In 2005, Each club played 2 games each in their home park.

In 2006, Detroit had home advantage – but were split by the Cards in Detroit, before St. Louis swept them in The Show Me State!

In 2007, Boston and Colorado hosted 2 games each.

In 2008, Philadelphia split in Tampa Bay, before sweeping once they arrived back at CBP.

In 2009, both teams hosted 3 games each – and the Yankees Won.

In 2010, San Francisco won the 1st 2 games at AT &T Park – before taking the next 2 of 3 in Texas.

In 2011, the Cards used the home field advantage to take down the Texas Rangers.  This would be the only Series in which the home field advantage was completely used and advantagious. 

The Cards won Games #6 and #7 in St. Louis.  The question I have is: Would they have been in this position if the Series were different from a 2 – 3 – 2 system?

In 2012, the Giants swept Detroit and both cities hosted 2 games.

So far the 10 winning teams of the ALL – Star Game have hosted just 24 Games, and the losers have hosted 26.  The Winner of The ALL – Star game record is 7 -3 for the World Series – but only one of the Series went to 7.

8 out of the 10 years, the team with the best Record in the World Series, had their League also win the ALL – Star Game. 

The only two instances were the 2004 Boston Red Sox had a worse record than the Cards, but were helped by an AL ALL – Star win.  In 2011, the Rangers had a better record than the Cards, but the NL won the ALL – Star Game.

Their is only a 20% chance that the series will go 7 Games anyway, which means that this game should only matter once every 5 years. 

The real thing I learned out of this study, is that the home advantage team netted a 31 – 19 record in the World Series games. However, they only hosted 24 out of the 50 Games played.

Hey Baseball, even with the AL taking the NL out with a 3 – 0 win last night, the game won’t count unless the series goes 7. 

In fact, chances are the series will have the AL team play less home games than the NL team – and how exactly should that please the AL fans right now?  Maybe you should go back to the drawing board again on this one again?

This rant went all over the board… so if you remember anything from it – is that the 2 – 3 – 2 format sucks..

The 2 – 3 – 2 format in the World Series is extremely stupid in my view. While the ALL – Star winning team has gone 31 – 19 during the last 50 World Series Games, they have had to play 26 games on the road – versus just 24 at home. Even with shared ticket revenues for the Series among teams, why should the team with Homefield Advantage be penalized for winning a Series in 5 games – by only playing 2 of them at home!  For the ALL – Star Team to have more games at home for the Series, it must go 7 – the far unlikeliest scenario.  The Loser of the ALL – Star Game has a better chance it goes 5. Not cool in my mind.  Then again, it could be avoided with a 3 – 3 – 1 format.

*** The views and opinions expressed in this report are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of mlbreports.com or their partners ***

A big thank-you goes out to Our ‘Chief Writer‘ Hunter Stokes for preparing today’s featured article.  Hunter is a Baseball Writer for MLB reports.

Hunter grew up in Lynchburg, Virginia and played baseball with Sheldon Bream (Sid Bream‘s son) at Liberty University in the NCAA.

His favorite player is Brian Wilson (how could you guess?), and he hates when people can’t think outside the box! 

His favorite expression – is ‘drive that one out that out and you have 110 LBS worth of crap in a 100 pound sack!

You can reach Hunter on Twitter  Follow @stokes_hunter21

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