Please, call a doctor. The commissioner is having another attack. Maybe some of you owners can help.
Every few years Bud Selig, a usually sensible man, gets a little loony because of what physicians call realignmentius contagium, or in layman’s terms, realignment fever.
Unfortunately this time the good commissioner may have convinced a majority of baseball owners that his condition is quite normal and “good for the health of the game.” If this is true major league baseball will look very different in 2001.
The look won’t be as strange as Selig’s proposal a few years back to put the White Sox and Cubs in the same division, but it’s pretty bad.
The National League will grow to four divisions, eliminating the wild-card team and ending what was becoming baseball’s hottest rivalry: Atlanta Braves vs. New York Mets.
The current NL Central, so full of promise with Sammy Sosa’s Cubs, Mark McGwire’s Cardinals, Ken Griffey Jr.’s Reds, the defending champion Houston Astros and the new-stadium bound Brewers and Pirates, will be splintered.
Over in the American League, the Central Division expands to an overweight six teams, flanked by four-team West and East divisions.
Oh yes. The Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays switch leagues. Here’s what the mess could look like:
AL East: Baltimore, Boston, New York Yankees, Toronto.
AL Central: White Sox, Cleveland, Detroit, Kansas City, Minnesota, Texas.
AL West: Anaheim, Arizona, Oakland, Seattle.
NL East: Montreal, New York Mets, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh.
NL South: Atlanta, Florida, Tampa Bay, Houston (or Cincinnati).
NL Central: Cubs, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Cincinnati (or Houston).
NL West: Colorado, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco.
Ouch. Want to tell White Sox boss Jerry Reinsdorf the new unbalanced schedule will mean more visits to Comiskey Park for the Tigers, Twins and Royals and fewer for the Yankees and Red Sox? That should boost attendance.
Under the current alignment, the White Sox at least had a shot at a wild card. But with Cleveland and Texas in their division, forget that route to the playoffs.
Didn’t baseball have enough realignment in the 1990s? Is the current format so awful? Why does baseball need its version of the Southeastern Conference?
The problems stem from three teams–Texas, Tampa Bay and Arizona–a group of championship-barren, tradition-starved franchises that in a rational world would be in no position to change baseball.
Texas doesn’t like playing in the AL West, where it is two time zones east of the other three teams. Odd, but haven’t the Rangers won three of the last four division titles? The AL West can’t be that much of handicap.
Tampa Bay believes it was “promised” the opportunity to compete against NL teams. Any outfit that plays in the ultra-ugly Tropicana Dome needs more than a league change to accelerate attendance.
Arizona is paying the price for becoming too good too quickly. The Diamondbacks made the playoffs in only their second season and owner Jerry Colangelo has stepped on a few toes. The other owners know how much Colangelo enjoys playing in the NL. They would love take him down a few pegs.
Sounds like some well-thought-out reasons to realign. Aren’t the other 27 teams pretty happy? Hasn’t the wild-card plan generated some special moments?
Selig seems to think it’s 1900, not 2000, and teams need to avoid those long train trips to faraway cities.
Doesn’t the commissioner know major league baseball is a national enterprise, not a regional gig? Has he forgotten already the electricity the Cubs, Mets and Giants created with their 1998 NL wild-card competition? Fans in three regions of the country followed that race like in the old pre-division days when teams from around the nation chased the pennant.
Can anyone say the world champion 1997 Marlins didn’t deserve to be in the postseason?
What about last year’s Mets-Reds wild-card battle that resulted in a one-game playoff?
Extra divisions do not guarantee extra excitement; they tend to diffuse it. With the Mets and Braves separated, who will provide competition for Atlanta in the NL South?
Someone should remind Selig of the American League situation in 1984 when five AL East teams finished with better records than the 84-78 Royals in the AL West. Where’s the reward for excellence?
Keeping the wild card guarantees that a team with the second- or third-best record in a league gets a shot at the playoffs. With four division champions, it’s possible that one of those four could have a worse record than half the league’s other clubs.
If Selig is so intent on realignment, let him swap jobs with NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue. With Dallas and Arizona in the NFC East and Atlanta and Carolina in the NFC West, there’s a sport that needs a geographic overhaul.
Surely the man who helped contribute to the cancellation of the 1994 World Series doesn’t want to do any more harm to baseball.
