by Matt Wells
I can picture it now. You wake up early for work and open up the sports page of your newspaper. You’re in dire search of those boxscores from last night’s baseball games. While you’re at it, you take a look at the standings.
You see the 30 teams in their respective divisions, but something is bothering you. There are more teams in one league than the other! Something is wrong: 16 teams in the National League and 14 teams in the American League. Baseball is imbalanced. You wonder how something like this happened. I have two words for you: Bud Selig.Let’s flashback to 1998:
In 1998, there were 28 teams in Major League Baseball, with the Florida Marlins and Colorado Rockies becoming teams before the start of the 1993 season. At this point in time, there were 14 teams in both the American and National Leagues. A nice balance. Now, you would have thought that adding two more teams would make it 15 and 15? WRONG!
In 1998, Selig, the owner of the Milwaukee Brewers as well as baseball’s commissioner, decided to move his Brewers to the National League, because he thought his beloved team had a better chance of winning over in the NL.
So, the Brewers were moved to the National League Central Division, a division that already had 5 teams in it – St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Houston, Cincinnati, and Chicago. Now, the balance was all out of whack.
With the inception of the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 1998, baseball would have 30 teams. However, Arizona was placed in the National League West, while Tampa Bay was thrown into the American League East.
Baseball would now have 16 teams in the National League and 14 in the American League. By moving his Brewers, Selig threw the evenly distributed leagues into a perhaps permanent imbalance.
Baseball may now have 16 teams in one league and 14 in another for quite some time. Of course, with teams relocating (Florida?) and some teams becoming obsolete (Montreal), who knows how long this current situation will last.
However, I had a suggestion back in 1998 of what Selig could have done instead.
WHAT SELIG SHOULD HAVE DONE:
When Selig moved the Brewers to the National League in 1998, he ended up with 6 teams in the NL Central.
When Selig performed this obscure move, he should have moved the Houston Astros to the National League West. Think about it: if that had happened, the Astros and the Texas Rangers would have had a REGULAR interleague rivalry, rather than one team from the AL West playing one team from the NL Central, perhaps the only screwed up interleague rivalry in baseball today.
With the Astros move to the NL West, each division in the National League would have 5 teams, with the Astros joining San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, and Colorado in the West.
This would make the tally at 15 National League teams and 13 American League teams. But, hold on. The Diamondbacks and Devil Rays would become part of baseball in 1998. Where would they go?
Easy. The Devil Rays would be placed in the American League East, right where they are now (the only thing Selig got right). However, the Diamondbacks would be placed in the American League West (NOT the NL West). Arizona would join Anaheim, Texas, Seattle, and Oakland out in the West.
By the two expansion teams of 1998 both joining the American League in the above-mentioned fashion. Thus, we would be seeing 6 divisions consisting of 5 teams each and 15 teams in each league. Wouldn’t that be nice?
Forward to today:
The National League Central has 6 teams in it. The American League West has 4. Talk about imbalance. This throws EVERYTHING into a frenzy.
Let me explain. Think about interleague play. With my above plan, there would have been 15 interleague games a day when that time of the season came around. Houston would be playing Texas in a West-vs.-West rivalry (not Central-vs.-West.) The Rockies and Diamondbacks would be playing each other in a West-vs.-West battle, instead of the two playing in the same league. No team would be left out.
Today’s interleague play is in shambles. There are 14 games a day between the American League and National League (when the time of the season comes), and there is one game where two National League teams “battle” it out (think Pittsburgh vs. Colorado, while everyone else is enjoying interleague play).
While it may not appear so on the surface, the All-Star Game is out of whack, as well. The National League must fill out a roster of 32 players from 16 teams. The American League must do the same; however, they only have to do it from 14 teams. The American League’s average of more players picked from more teams may be one of the reasons why there are 13 Yankees in the All-Star Game each year.
So, next time you open up your paper, consider my plan. Brewers to the National League, Astros to the NL West, and the Diamondbacks and Devil Rays BOTH to the American League. Isn’t it about time that baseball was IN BALANCE?
3 replies on “Where Selig Went Wrong with Realignment”
This is a well written story but… you are missing a major point. If Selig were to make each of the leagues have 15 teams, when they weren’t in interleague play, one team would have to have a day off every day. Now this might not be a huge deal, but teams that have to take the weekend off could be hurt. Every team plays on the weekends. While I don’t know that this is a solid fact, it would make a lot of sense that teams make more money on the weekends and on Friday nights than at any other time as this is when most families and working people go to the games. This could be a big loss, especially to teams that don’t sell out every night. Teams like the Red Sox or Yankees who sell out every night probably wouldn’t be affected, but smaller, less competitive teams like Tampa or Colorado would definitely feel it. Other than that, you made some valid points and this was a good story.
Wow… Wow, I never thought of that. They WOULD have to have off days like that. That never even crossed my mind…
Good point.
Astros should move to the AL West — I came across the article written in February that the solution to baseball’s imbalaced divisions would be to move the Astro’s to the NL West and the Diamondbacks to the AL West. Why not just move the Astro’s to the AL West, and solve everything? You’d get to play the Rangers 18 times a year. It would be a great rivalry, and it would also minimize the problems that come from having 4 far west teams and 1 Texas team in each division.