Boost for All-Star game: Winning team to host World Series

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Baseball owners decided unanimously yesterday to give the All-Star Game winner home-field advantage in the World Series.

"This energizes it. This gives them something to really play for," Commissioner Bud Selig said after the 30-0 vote. "People pay a lot of money to see that game. They deserve to see the same intensity they see all year long. Television people pay a lot of money for the game. It was not and should not be a meaningless exhibition game."

Home field has rotated between the American and National leagues since the World Series began in 1903, and the team hosting Games 1, 2, 6 and 7 has won 15 of the last 17 titles and the last eight series that went a full seven games.

Owners made the change following last year's mess in Milwaukee, when both teams ran out of pitchers and the All-Star game ended in a 7-7, 11-inning tie.

In other action, officials adopted a minimum age of 14 for batboys.

Expos' eye on economy

Baseball's options for the Montreal Expos might be limited by the soft national economy.

As the committee on the future of the Expos prepares to set up meetings with communities interested in obtaining the team for the 2004 season, baseball owners said financing for a new ballpark would be a big part of the equation. "Is there a long line forming to deal with us? Probably not at this point," Expos President Tony Tavares said.

Washington, D.C., Northern Virginia and Portland, Ore., are the leading candidates to obtain the franchise.

Carter honored as Expo

Gary Carter will be the first player to go into baseball's Hall of Fame with a Montreal Expos logo on his hat.

Carter had expressed an interest in having his plaque adorned with a Mets hat — the team he won the 1986 World Series with and now works for — but said he wasn't upset at the Hall's announcement.

Carter will officially be inducted into the Hall with Eddie Murray on July 27 in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Notes

• The Tampa Bay Devil Rays signed second baseman Marlon Anderson to a one-year contract.

• Reliever Octavio Dotel and outfielder Daryle Ward agreed to one-year deals with the Houston Astros.

• Pitcher Brett Tomko agreed to a one-year, $3.3 million contract with the St. Louis Cardinals.

• The Cincinnati Reds agreed to one-year contracts with pitchers Ryan Dempster and Scott Williamson, infielder Aaron Boone and catcher Jason LaRue.

• The Baltimore Orioles signed relief pitcher Kerry Ligtenberg to a one-year contract.

• Lehman Brothers, handling the sale of the World Series champion Anaheim Angels, will begin seeking bids in two weeks.