At least the All-Star Game no longer decides World Series home field.

Several new angles surround tonight’s Major League All-Star Game in Miami, one being that so little is now at stake that the TV ratings are bound to bomb. And it may be the only “extra” game Joe Madden gets to manage this year, as his Cubs are struggling. And Cleveland manager Terry Francona will miss the honor due to an ailing heart illness.

Remember, since 2003 the league that won the All-Star Game had home field advantage for its World Series representative. Former Commissioner of Baseball Bud Selig wanted to make the suffering exhibition that marks the halfway point of the regular season have more meaning. It even backfired on the league that won.

Turned out that only three World Series since then had gone to a decisive seventh game, denying the team from the victorious league home field on that night. Two of three times the Fall Classic did go seven, the road team won, including last year when the dominant regular season Cubs came back from a 3-1 deficit and had to win the last two games in Cleveland.

Ironically, having to use the designated hitter in the AL ballpark helped the Cubs, who could put Kyle Schwarber in the batting order as DH after he missed almost all of the season with an injury.  Schwarber delivered during the Series with seven hits, including one double, two RBIs, and one stolen base while batting .412 and maintaining a .500 on base percentage.

If Games Six and Seven were in Chicago, Schwarber would not have been in the lineup since he was not cleared to play in the field. So after 13 years of lunacy, new Commissioner Rob Manfred finally moved home field to where it belongs – the World Series team with the best winning percentage for the 162-game regular season. Prior to 2003, the leagues alternated home field advantage each year so teams could prepare their ballparks and print tickets.

Madden benefited from that irony last season, and if his Cubs somehow rallied in the second half to get back into the playoff race he would be managing tonight for the home field. He’s not, and his team is in a logjam with the Cardinals and Pirates trying to catch Milwaukee in the National League Central.

If the Cubbies do sneak back into the post-season they will likely be the road team again, because the Nationals and Dodgers are killing it in their divisions. Irony wins, Bud Selig loses. Play ball.

(Photo: Getty Images)