Sox' fate firmly in Yankee, Red Sox hands

Good morning Chicago. Both your baseball teams are in first place. And in nine short days they'll play a game at Yankee Stadium to decide who gets home-field advantage in the World Series. Or, if you've been downing Windy City Kool-Aid all summer: where you'll need to tailgate -- Wrigley or U.S. Cellular Field for Game 7 of the Fall Classic.

The starting lineups for that critical game in New York were announced today. Take a look. Notice anything?

Geovany Soto, Alfonso Soriano and Kosuke Fukudome were all voted in by the fans as NL starters. The White Sox? Well, they have nobody. That's four less starters than the Boston Red Sox have.

Look, the author understands that fans are going to be fans. They want to see all their hometown guys play in the All-Star game. But now that it means something, don't the fans have a responsibility to their teams to select the best players in the league. Especially in a season where home-field advantage is so pronounced. Why not reward the players who actually deserve to be there based on their performance to this point of the season? That seems like what a true fan of the game of baseball would do.

A perfect example of this is Josh Hamilton, the unequivocal best story of the season. But the author proposes that if you're going to punch your card for Hamilton, you must also vote for Carlos Quentin. And everyone else having monster years, regardless of how popular they've already become. These guys will give your team's league the best chance to win the pivotal game.

In the end, the soap box-standing author realizes this is a lost cause. Even though the game counts now, it's still basically treated as an exhibition. And he's witnessed people he respects punch straight ballots for their team of choice. Oh well. As long as these people don't get upset when their team loses a World Series game on the road.