We are seeing an effort by major-league baseball to realign the teams so that travel costs, rivalries, schedules, etc., all resemble some sort of sanity.
Radical plans call for up to one-third of the teams to switch league affiliations. While fans appear to want natural rivalries, some teams are opposed to these rivalries (especially teams in New York, Chicago and the San Francisco Bay area).
Maybe the solution need not be so drastic. It may be as simple as placing the new Tampa Bay Devil Rays in the American League Central. Although this would cause an uneven distribution of teams in the American League divisions, this could be easily remedied by moving the Milwaukee Brewers to the National League Central. The number of teams in the AL would remain the same while the NL would add two teams (the new Arizona Diamondbacks and the transplanted Brewers). This would solve that “odd team” problem that would necessitate season-long interleague play.
This may be the only viable solution. Only one team would have to move, and that team’s owner (Bud Selig, who is also acting commissioner) is all for moving.
