MLBPA head: All-Star Game changes protect World Series' integrity
During his 15-year playing career, MLB Players Association executive director Tony Clark never got the chance to play in a World Series, coming closest with the 2004 Yankees, who dropped that year's ALCS in seven games.
Having tasted both October baseball and an All-Star Game (he represented the Tigers at the 2001 midsummer classic), though, Clark entered CBA negotiations with a firsthand understanding of why using the game to determine home-field advantage in the World Series was a major issue for his constituents. Clark listened, and so did the owners, and, as a result, the union successfully negotiated to have home-field in the World Series go to the team with the better regular-season record.
"That has been an interest from the players' side for a long time," Clark told Ken Davidoff of the New York Post. "We were able to do that this round, and we're hopeful that, as a result, our All-Star Game continues to improve and is the Midsummer Classic it has always been while also protecting the integrity of the most important games of the year in the World Series."
Instead of home-field advantage, All-Stars will now compete for a $640,000 pot that will be split evenly among the winning league's 32-man roster.
During its 14-year lifespan, the home-field advantage rule - instituted after the infamous tie game in 2002 - resulted in multiple teams with lesser records than their opponents earning the advantage. National League teams lost the most from the rule, as they've won the game just three times since 2002, and a pair of 100-win NL teams were denied the advantage because of the rule. Due in part to the AL's dominance of the All-Star Game, the home-field rule became derided in many circles, and likely played a role in the union's push to get rid of it.
Clark also addressed the union's controversial decision to accept a $5-million hard cap on signing bonuses for international players. He believes eliminating multi-million-dollar deals like Yoan Moncada's $31.5-million contract with Boston is fair for all sides given North American players must go through the draft and can't negotiate those kinds of deals.
"It is unlikely that a signing that high (like Moncada's) will happen again," Clark told ESPN's Jayson Stark. "Nor can it happen on the domestic side. Nor has it happened on the domestic side.
"We spent a lot of time with players going through this one. And where we landed, we believe, protects all of those pieces."
Clark added that the decision doesn't change the union's view on salary caps at the big-league level.