On Baseball

[reldnahkram]

MLB does a rivalry weekend, where there's interleague play based on rivalries, mostly location-based. For the most part, it works (AL in caps):

NYY-nym
CWS-chc
LAA-lad (not used to that yet)
OAK-sfg
BAL-phi
CLE-cin
TEX-hou
TB-fla
MIN-mil
KCR-stl
BOS-atl
SEA-sdp
TOR-was
DET-ari
pit-col (there are 16 NL teams v. 14 AL teams, so two NL teams have to play)

Obviously, the last two interleague pairings are unsatisfactory. This is primarily because, when the schedule was made, Washington was still in Montreal, and the games against Toronto made much more sense. As it is, how they'll likely solve things is to have Baltimore play Washington and Philly play Toronto (1993 does not a rivalry make, even if I still curse the name of Joe Carter). A better solution would be to let the strict interleague pairings lapse, ari-col, pit-phi, and DET-TOR make much more regional sense. A more radical solution would be SEA - mil (Seattle Pilots became the Brewers; this is why BOS-atl makes sense), sdp-ari, MIN-col, DET-pit (or CLE-pit and DET-cin), and TOR-phi. Combining these two gives DET-TOR and pit-phi. I think an even better solution might be to return Milwaukee to the AL (where they belong) along with Arizona (MIL to the ALC, ARI to the ALW) and then have ARI-sdp, SEA-col, MIN-MIL, DET-pit, TOR-phi; a better solution is DET-TOR and pit-phi, as discussed before.

A more fun what-if game is to add two teams to MLB (a bad idea, IMHO) and break down into 8 four-team divisions, a la the NFL. Thing is, baseball already covers the major metropolitan areas. 27 of baseball's 30 teams are in the top 25 US metro areas (stats from here); Toronto would be top 10 (and would bump the one region area not covered - Portland, OR - from the top 25). The missing cities are Millwaukee and Kansas City. The two new MLB teams would go, I think, in Mexico City and either Vancouver or Guadalajara. Divisions as follows:

NLEast: PHI, NYM, WAS, PIT
NLSouth: ATL, FLA, HOU, MXC/COL
NLNorth: CHC, STL, MIL, CIN
NLWest: SDP, LAD, SFG, COL/VAN
ALEast: BOS, NYY, BAL, DET
ALNorth: CLE, TOR, MIN, CWS
ALWest: OAK, LAA, SEA, ARI
ALSouth: TB, KC, TEX, GUA/MXC

Use the left slash terms in case of Guadalajara, the right terms for Vancouver (to avoid putting Seattle and Vancouver in the same league - no market has two teams in the same league; this is a strong case for Guadalajara).

Play 20 games (2 3-games, 1 4-game series each home/away) against divisional teams, seven each against remaining teams in league (a 3-game and a 4-game), 12 interleague games against a common division (a la football), and six rivalry interleague games (two series, 1 against each rival - home and home in case of divisional overlap).

Rivalries:
PHI-BAL, PHI-NYY
NYM-NYY, NYM-BOS
WAS-TOR ,WAS-BAL
PIT-CLE, PIT-DET
ATL-BOS, ATL-TB
FLA-TB, FLA-KC
HOU-GUA/MXC, HOU-TEX
MXC/COL-TEX, MXC/COL-GUA/MXC
CHC-CWS, CHC-MIN
STL-KC, STL-CWS
MIL-MIN ,MIL-SEA
CIN-DET, CIN-CLE
LAD-LAA, LAD-OAK
SD-ARI, SD-LAA
SFG-OAK, SFG-ARI
COL/VAN-SEA , COL/VAN-TOR


I so should have just gone to bed instead of working on this

Comments

[god-of-belac.livejournal.com]

Ahh, realignment. Personally, I miss the division races. Wild cards are cool, but the 1993 NL West division race wouldn't have been so kick-ass if the loser were going to the wild card instead of home. Boston wouldn't have won the world series in 2004, but the Yankees wouldn't have been there in '03 to knock them out. And the '97 Marlins travesty would never have occurred.

[reldnahkram.livejournal.com]

Let's say '93 had a wild-card setup with the divisions as they were in '94. ATL and SFG win their divisions easily. STL wins the Central, with HOU 2 back and CHC 3 back. That would have been a great race, given that the Phils would win the wild card by 10 over any of them (and by 3 over MON, same as they won the NLE as was). In the AL, NYY wins the ALE by 3 games over BAL and DET, CWS runs away with the ALC, TEX wins the ALW by 4 over SEA. BAL and DET tie for the wild card, with KC one game back and SEA 3 back. As great as the ATL/SFG race was, the wild card tends to include more teams in races. I'm still not sure whether I like it or not, but it certainly adds to the pennant races.

Another thing - that '93 White Sox team was really good, but they tend to be forgotten among the ATL/SFG race, the Joe Carter walkoff, and the first expansion season since '77.

[ccommack]

There's also the issue of economics; one of the reasons the Yankees and Mets are so powerful (even in their recent sucking spell, the Mets have been formidable,) is that they have the loyalty of a Gi-Friggin-Nourmous baseball market between them, such that they will never hurt for money. Until that changes, "revenue sharing" aside, you will always have a large and probably ever-increasing disparity between haves and have nots.

My solution for this is a radical one, which I may have shared with you before:

NWK

This can be the Vancouver/Guadalajara team you proposed for expansion, or if holding to the current size, can be yoinked out of Tampa Bay (sorry, Larry, wherever you are, but the Devil Rays are financially unsound. They also suck.) You have to realign the rivalries, but consider the possibilities of a NWK-PHL rivalry (think Devils/Flyers, only baseball, so people care more...)