Should home-field advantage in the World Series be on the line at the All-Star Game? Read both sides, then read what you had to say. No-star game Armando Benitez could end up affecting the World Series. Brad Mangin By Daniel G. Habib, Sports Illustrated Imagine you're a Cubs fan, and as summer begins to envelop the North Side and your Cubbies remain within shouting distance of first place, you begin dreaming, perhaps prematurely, of October. Doesn't it inspire confidence to know that Armando Benitez may play a significant role in determining your postseason fortunes? Say what? That's right, as the All-Star Game enters the brave new world of "This Time It Counts," Major League Baseball has decided to preserve the anachronistic rule that each team gets a representative, even the scuffling Mets, whom a rival club executive describes as "the worst team money can buy." And since the best all that money could produce is a ticking-time-bomb of a closer who can't close, Benitez is an NL All-Star. Normally, nobody would get hot and bothered about such a selection, but the league's decision to have the outcome of the All-Star Game determine homefield advantage for the World Series -- a decision motivated by pressure from Fox TV suits and the embarrassment of last July's 11-inning tie in Bud Selig's backyard -- has the absurd effect of putting Benitez, an unreliable part of an out-of-it team, in position to affect the postseason. How much of an impact could he have? Consider, that since postseason play expanded to four teams in 1969, home teams have won 21 of 33 World Series, and nine of 13 Game 7s. Since the Cardinals rallied from a 3-2 deficit to beat the Brewers in the '82 World Series, home teams have won 15 of 16 Games 6 and 7, and seven times in the last 21 World Series, a home team trailing 3-2 has rallied to win the Series. That's a huge advantage, and awarding it based on an unrelated event is silly. Sure, the previous system of alternating homefield year-by-year was arbitrary, but at least it was equitable, and it doesn't follow that another similarly arbitrary system will be similarly equitable. So, imagine a crucial, late-inning situation in which Benitez is summoned. New Yorkers who regularly watch the closer will confirm that, despite his respectable save conversion percentage, there's nobody you'd want less on the mound in such a crucial spot. Yet, here he is, Cubs fans, a key to your postseason dream. Enjoy the game! A must-watch Fans finally have a reason to watch the All-Star Game. Al Tielemans By Albert Chen, Sports Illustrated The best case against Bud Selig's latest attempt to inject some life into baseball is this: Homefield advantage in the World Series is just too important to be determined by something meaningless, such as the result of an exhibition game -- especially if most of the players participating in that game come from teams unlikely to contend and probably don't deserve to be All-Stars in the first place (that's you, Lance Carter and Rondell White). That would be a valid case to make -- if only, under the previous system, homefield advantage had been determined by merit. Instead, for all these years, it's been decided on an alternating basis. Short of flipping a coin, could it have been more random? Fast forward to Tuesday night: Barry Bonds rocks a grand slam in the second inning off Jamie Moyer, giving the NL the eventual winning runs of the night -- and, perhaps, giving his San Francisco Giants an October edge. (How often are All-Star games really decided in the late innings?) Or, the NL leads 3-2 in the ninth, and saves maestro John Smoltz enters. Hideki Matsui on second, Ichiro at the plate. The stakes are high. The game's on the line and so, too, possibly, is homefield for Smoltz's Atlanta Braves, Soriano's New York Yankees, or Ichiro's Seattle Mariners. Now doesn't that better resemble Must-See TV? At last, an All-Star Game that means something. One reason baseball's version was once the best All-Star event is that the players used to care about who won the game. League allegiances mattered. But thanks to interleague play, the proliferation of free-agent movement, and the abolishment of league presidents, pride and differentiation between the AL and NL has never been more diluted. Tying the outcome of the All-Star Game to the World Series brings some juice back to league rivalries. In years past, after taking their two at-bats, starters typically ducked into their Escalades to hit the highway by the fifth inning. Now they have reason to stick around. And so will more TV viewers. Finally, here's a game with the potential to be more interesting than a David Letterman rerun or replays of Vanessa Carlton singing the national anthem. Finally, there's a reason to tune in.