Last updated: 1:29 pm
July 15, 2008
Posted: 4:10 am
July 15, 2008
FOR all of them, there will be distinct segments to the evening's festivities. There will be the wide-eyed gaze all of them will take onto the field with them, the little boys locked within their hearts finally realizing: Holy cow, here I am playing in an All-Star Game in Yankee Stadium . . .
And then there will be the steely-eyed stare that will take over, especially among the players currently playing for contenders. That's the easy part to forget, the fact that there are real stakes in play tonight, the fact that the game matters, especially to those future survivors of October's rigorous obstacle course.
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"I think we've proven a couple of times now how important the All-Star Game can be if you want to win the World Series," said Jason Varitek, the Red Sox catcher, speaking behind a podium in the Grand Hyatt Hotel on the day before the All-Star Game visits Yankee Stadium for the final time. "You win this game, someone is definitely going to benefit down the road."
The American League has enjoyed that benefit every year since the All-Star Game became the holy grail for home-field advantage in the World Series five years ago. It doesn't always translate perfectly: The Marlins' Josh Beckett did walk into Yankee Stadium and kneecap the Yankees in a Game 6 in 2003, remember, and the 2006 Cardinals took care of business before ever having to return to Detroit for Games 6 or 7.
But the Red Sox, in 2004 and 2007, stormed to four-game sweeps thanks in large part to burying the Cards and Rockies early in those World Series, same as the White Sox did to the Astros in 2005. If you're playing for home-field advantage, after all, you might as well take advantage of the home-field part of that equation.
