Boras: Time for World Series at neutral sites

Scott Boras has a bad idea he would like to tell you about. (USATSI)

When it comes to baseball, Scott Boras is very important, very intelligent and very good at his job. So when he puts forward something like what you’re about to read, it’s going to create a ripple. From Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune:

Of course, Boras also said he would like all the World Series games played at a neutral site picked well in advance like the Super Bowl.

…

Boras talked about all the children and parents who never have seen a World Series and could plan a year in advance, and the need for the media and corporate sponsors to know the site.

“If we continue to do this on a regional scale, we’re going to lose something that baseball deserves, and what it deserves is world attention,” he said. “There is a sacrifice of two, three or four [home] games for a team, but the betterment it brings to baseball on the whole far exceeds the detriment.”

A few years ago, Boras advanced the idea of expanding the World Series to a best-of-9 format and playing the first two games at a neutral site. This time, however, he seems to be advocating playing the entire Fall Classic at a neutral site. This strikes me as a fantastically bad idea.

First, the notion that baseball is a locally driven business is as much feature as it is bug. That model is working just fine for MLB, thanks very much. Second, well, just … no. To any right-thinking person, it’s simply unacceptable to give up the prospect of a series-clinching dog-pile on the mound or heart-pounding walk-off in front of the home crowd in favor of what would surely be the marginal returns of trying to ape the Super Bowl. No, no and another no and no and no. No.

I would be open to something like playing Game 1 at a neutral site, going 2-3-1 on the remaining six games (guaranteeing that each team gets at least one home game) and ditching any notions of home-field advantage altogether (the All-Star Game is an exhibition, you see). That kind of thing sounds fine, if ultimately unnecessary. But playing the entire Fall Classic at a neutral, unemotionally invested venue in Miami or Phoenix or, Heaven forfend, the Superdome? To that prospect, I give the full complement of nos and then stomp my little feet and throw my sippy cup.

(Wink of CBS eye: HardballTalk)

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