Re-structuring Major League Baseball: Part 1
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I first conceived this idea to restructure Major League Baseball a few weeks ago. I had this fear of my New York Yankees, the best team of the regular season, falling victim to a lesser team that got hot at the right time. (Luckily, this year the two best teams, in my opinion, came out on top, but that’s not the point.) The best of 5 division series is perfect for this type of outcome. Almost any team can beat any other team three times out of five. It’s completely unpredictable and even the Pirates could beat the Yankees if they played enough times. It’s happened before and it will happen again. I would not be opposed to bumping it up to a 7-game series, giving the superior team a better chance to lay down the hammer in the Division Series. However, I have more radical ideas. Up until 2008, the World Series featured a Wild Card team for 6 straight seasons, most notably the 2007 Colorado Rockies, 2004 Boston Red Sox and the 2003 Florida Marlins. Am I just bitter that the Yankees were defeated by many of these teams? You could say that. Many say that’s the beauty of the game. Others, like myself, are in favor of the best teams playing each other in the game's ultimate contest. Really, what is the advantage of winning your division when the team you outlasted for 162 games can defeat you in four games and send you home packing? The regular-season is a marathon, not a sprint, and the best teams should be rewarded for being successful over the long haul. Prior to 1994 and the addition of the Wild Card, the MLB used two divisions in each league, and a two playoff-round format. This is the model I will base my restructure around. Since that time, four new teams have entered the league making a return to this format unpractical. So I’m picking up my virtual and axe and contracting six teams, kicking them out of the MLB forever. This is based on a number of factors ranging from strength of market and recent history of suckage. After our mass exile, Major League Baseball will be left with 24 teams, two leagues and four divisions (East and West in each league). Here are the teams getting the boot and why. Kansas City Royals: “Wait, you can’t contract my Royals. We have a rich history and this is a great town for baseball!” Wah wah wah. Fact of the matter is your Royals only have one World Series title and haven’t made the playoffs since that 1985 season when they won it all. In addition, the team was 25th in average attendance in 2009, a year in which they featured a newly renovated ballpark. This is a team that doesn’t look ready to compete anytime in the near future. Toronto Blue Jays: Sorry, there will be no more Canadian baseball in my league. The Blue Jays have been a relatively successful team since its inception and this was one of the harder teams to cut. Two World Series titles are better than a lot of teams. But baseball will always be secondary to hockey in this town. In a world of the Red Sox and Yankees, the Blue Jays will never get over that hump. This is a team in transition and things could soon head down hill. Seattle Mariners: This is another team that has had moderate success in recent years and some hall of fame caliber players, but they have no World Series Titles or AL Pennants to show for it. It’s not like they haven’t had their chances either. They’ve been around for the better part of 4 decades and have only a handful of playoff appearances. Attendance is mediocre and the city location isn’t ideal. The Mariners have been floating around mediocrity the past few years and their ship has sailed. Washington Nationals: Washington is still not ready to support a baseball team. Average attendance in 2009 ranked 24th in the league and the product on the field wasn’t much better. There’s some talent here but they are still a few years away from being even close to competitive. Dating back to their days as the Montreal Expos, this franchise has the longest current playoff drought in the league at 28 years. There is no success to be found here. Florida Marlins: The Marlins are one of the stranger franchises around. 2 World Series titles (1997, 2003) since they entered the league in 1992. Not bad right? Well they still have never won a division title, meaning their only 2 playoff berths came during their championship seasons. They certainly make the most out of their opportunities. Success isn’t really the problem. No matter how low their payroll is, they usually seem to field a competitive team. The problem is no one wants to see them, ever. The Marlins are consistently amongst the worst in attendance each year and finished 2nd to last in 2009. Baseball can never really seem to catch on in Miami. San Diego Padres: The Padres, like the Mariners, are another one of those teams that have had ample time and opportunity to be successful, but usually fail in the end. An MLB franchise since 1969, the team has only captured two NL pennants (1984, 1998). The team has enjoyed a pair of division titles in 2005 and 2006 but the last two years haven’t been as kind. With attendance plummeting, the future looks bleak and they would likely be staring at the NL West cellar for at least the next few years. Teams that just made the cut: Cleveland Indians (Title-less for many decades, but every once in a while they make a run and they’ve been around a long time), Texas Rangers (Lots of talent and hope for the future barely lets them survive), Baltimore Orioles (Decent history and some good young talent), Pittsburgh Pirates (Boy they’ve been horrible for years but a history too rich to ignore), Colorado Rockies (A young franchise, good attendance and new-found success in recent years) We’re down to 24 teams, 13 National League, 11 American League. Yeah, it looks dumb to you too right? I never understood why there were an uneven number of teams. So we have to move one. Looking at the current National League there are a lot of teams that have a strong history and firm grip on their current area. One team that doesn’t particularly have this is the Houston Astros. Not a very rich tradition and they have only one NL Pennant to their name. So the team is packing their bags for the American League and their new home town of Louisville, Kentucky. Why Louisville? Well the small town will embrace their team and will be selling out home games from the start. Louisville has always been a name synonymous with baseball so why not give them a team? Welcome to the MLB, Louisville Bats! One more thing is bothering me. The Oakland Athletics. The team is not very good, the stadium is garbage and attendance was the worst in the league in 2009. Don’t give me this Bay Area rivalry junk either. There is hardly any rivalry with the San Francisco Giants, so that won’t be missed. It’s time for a change of scenery. Say hello to the Las Vegas Outlaws! (Was that an XFL team? I don’t care it sounds cool.) People have been talking for years about putting a big time professional sports team in Las Vegas. There are the obvious dilemmas but its time this town was given a chance. It’s a large city so attendance would be good, at least initially. And imagine what a colorful and raucous crowd that would be! So what if the team stinks. The fans will be too inebriated to care! Okay, the teams and locations are set, time to structure the divisions. Two leagues, four divisions (East and West in each), six teams in each. We’re going to stay geographically correct to. You won’t see anything like the Atlanta Braves in the NL West anymore. For fun I’ll put them in order of how I think the standings will look in 2010. American League East American League West National League East National League West Wait, there’s one more problem. Where do all the contracted players go? Part 2 will have the answer when the first ever MLB Re-alignment Draft will take place. Stay tuned. |
uneven number of teams
They needed an even number of teams in each league so that at any given time, every team could be playing (just for example. on a Friday night, an odd number of teams in the NL would mean a team can't be playing, which is not good on a Friday night).