Back in 2011, when Bud Selig was the baseball commissioner, I wrote a column for Newsday with the simple yet elegant headline, “Time to get rid of leagues, realign?”
Well, it has taken 14 years and there’s a different commissioner, but Rob Manfred has finally gotten the message.
On ESPN’s broadcast of the Mets-Mariners Little League World Series Classic game on Sunday, Manfred reiterated that he wants to add two expansion teams before he retires in 2029.
Also on the table: Geographical realignment.
Yay!
“I think if we expand, it provides us with an opportunity to geographically realign,” Manfred said. “I think we could save a lot of wear and tear on our players in terms of travel. And I think our postseason format would be even more appealing for entities like ESPN, because you’d be playing out of the east and out of the west.”
Unlike Manfred, we’re not concerned with what is best for ESPN and other broadcasting outlets. We are concerned with what is best for you, the fans, and the game itself.
What would be best – as I argued (unsuccessfully) in 2011 – is to say goodbye to the American and National Leagues.
When you play an interleague game every day, with the designated hitter in both leagues, with the umpires (and as soon as next season, robot umpires) working games in both leagues, there is no longer any reason for the AL and NL to exist, other than dusty record books and nostalgia.
It’s my opinion that MLB has been intentionally reducing the differences between the leagues over last few years because it intends to do away with them. That time will come before the end of the decade.
Geographical realignment is going to happen, likely after MLB and the players union slug it out over a salary cap when the collective bargaining agreement expires following the 2026 season. MLB can dangle two expansion teams and 52 jobs, and when the expected labor war ends baseball can begin a new set-up that provides better regular-season matchups and spicier postseason series.
Why should the Yankees and Mets only play four or six times a season? Put them in the same league, same division, and let them slug it out 12 times a year. Let those games combine the spectacle and intensity of the current Subway Series with something real at stake – a division title, perhaps a playoff spot.
If we miss out on the chance of the New York teams meeting in the World Series? Well, that has happened exactly once since 1962. But under a geographically realigned scheme, the Yankees and Mets would have a decent chance to meet in the postseason every year since they would be in the same league.
Same for Cubs-White Sox. Dodgers-Angels. Cardinals-Royals. Orioles-Nationals. Marlins-Rays (not that anyone in Florida cares). Mariners-Last Licks (that’s what I’m calling the expansion team in Salt Lake City).
And what would those leagues be called? How about naming them after two of baseball’s most influential figures. The Eastern-most league could be named after Babe Ruth. The Western-most league could be named after Jackie Robinson.
Or you could just call them MLB East and MLB West if you want to keep it simple.
Each league would have 16 teams, eight per division. Say hello to expansion teams in Salt Lake City and Nashville (or anywhere else where someone wants to pony up $5 billion or so for an expansion fee and build a new ballpark).
The four division winners would get first-round byes. The teams with the four next-best records in each league would earn wild-card spots. That’s the same number of playoff teams as we have now: six in each league. So the postseason setup would be the same, but series within leagues would be contested in the same half of the country.
A note about our country: It is large.
That makes it very difficult to fit all 30 teams plus two proposed new ones into an exact geographic alignment. The chart accompanying this column lists what a 32-team league might look like, but there are plenty of fair quibbles. It would have been great to bunch Atlanta, Nashville and the two Florida teams in a Southeast division. Colorado isn’t really in the heartland. We’re sure there are others you could pick out as not ideal.
But I’m reminded that when I was growing up the Atlanta franchise was in the NL West. Last time I checked, Atlanta was pretty far east. This stood from 1969 to 1993, and while it was an imposition on Atlanta fans who had to stay up late to watch games from the west coast, baseball itself survived the oddity.
Any realignment is going to have square pegs that have to be shoved into round holes. So be it. But it’s coming, and this time we’re not going to have to wait 14 years. Maybe four or five. Can’t wait.
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
Source link
