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Grex Sports Item 64: Baseball re-alignment?
Entered by richard on Tue Aug 12 22:33:25 UTC 1997:

The Baseball Gods are in all likelihood going to re-align all the teams 
next season or the season after, in a massive re-structuring.  The idea 
is to have all the teams aligned by geographic area, so all natural 
rivals are in the same divisions.

Here's how the current re-alignment being proposed would look:

AMERICAN LEAGUE

East                    Mid-East

NY Yankees              Atlanta Braves
NY Mets                 Florida Marlins
Boston Red Sox          Tampa (new team) 
Philadelphia Phillies   Pittsburgh Pirates
Baltimore Orioles       Detroit Tigers
Toronto Blue Jays       Cleveland Indians
Montreal Expos          Cincinatti Reds

NATIONAL LEAGUE

Central                      West 

Chicago Cubs                 Los Angeles Dodgers
Chicago White Sox            Anaheim Angels
St. Louis Cardinals          San Francisco Giants
Kansas City Royals           Oakland A's
Milwaukee Brewers            San Diego Padres
Minnesota Twins              Arizona Diamondbacks (new team)
Texas Rangers                Colorado Rockies
Houston Astros               Seattle Mariners


The American League would still have the Designated Hitter.  On the face 
of it, this makes all the sense in the world, because this allows 
natural rivals to play each other and increase regional interest.

My problem is that my team, the Braves would be stuck in the AL central. 
I am a National League person and I *hate* the DH.  I want my team 
playing the real game, besides all our pitchers are good hitters.

I think I'd put the Tigers in the National league so they could play the 
Cubs and Cardinals regularly.  Maybe I'd switch Braves and Tigers to NL 
central, and put Texas and Houston in AL Mideast.

What do you think?

9 responses total.

#1 of 9 by omni on Thu Aug 14 18:09:25 1997:

 I think it's time to talk about hockey!

  This is heresy. The Reds in the *American* League. Btw, Cincinnati has only
1 t and two n's.

#2 of 9 by albaugh on Thu Aug 21 17:58:00 1997:

I think it's ludicrous to have the newly-formed AL be the only league with
a DH.  If they do this realignment, the DH should be in for both leauges or
out for both!

#3 of 9 by richard on Fri Aug 22 16:54:26 1997:

The league wants to do away with the DH entirely, as theyshould (I believe
in playground rules...noone gets tobat unless they play thefield)
   
But the Players Associationwont approve re-alignment or anything else
unless the DHis preserved.  The DH provides too many jobs forpowerhitters
who are otherwise overthehill, and unable to play the field

#4 of 9 by srw on Thu Sep 4 06:20:00 1997:

Proving that the player's assoc has too much power. The DH rule sucks. 
The fans all know this. They should boycott DH games.

#5 of 9 by richard on Tue Sep 23 20:47:50 1997:

they still havent come up with a re-alignment plan agreable to
the affected parties.  Current idea is to have two eight teamdivisions in
thenational and two seven teams in the American .league.

Montreal, Florida, Houston would switch to the American...
Seattle, Oakland, Anaheim would switch toothe National...
Kansas City and Milwaukee would alsos witch to the National...

#6 of 9 by bruin on Tue Sep 23 21:28:02 1997:

I have a slight problem with the "Mid-East" division of the American 
league, and that is the fact that the division name reminds me too 
much of the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict.

But I digress.

#7 of 9 by general on Sat Oct 18 00:37:50 1997:

Not only does this plan suck, but it's been ditched. Either Milwaukee or
Kansas City will be moving to the National League Central, the Tampa Bay Devil
Rays will take Detroit's spot in the AL East, with the Arizona Diamondbacks in
the NL West. (According to ESPN SportsZone.)

#8 of 9 by srw on Tue Oct 21 00:29:58 1997:

The major realignment was ditched --- R.I.P.

There is still going to be some minor realignment, I understand.
Isn't Detrouit going from the East to the Central?

#9 of 9 by jep on Tue Oct 21 13:44:08 1997:

Yes, Detroit will be in the AL Central next year.

This causes me a little short-term concern.  I've heard a fair amount of
talk that maybe Detroit can cmpete for a division title earlier than they
otherwise might have, since they'll be away from the deep-pockets
competition of New York and Baltimore.  Detroit has been going through a
hard period of rebuilding from the bottom, after allowing their farm
system to become the worst in the majors, and trying to make up for it
with free agent acquisitions through the early 1990's.  I've been all in
favor of the rebuilding process.  The Tigers were a heck of a lot of fun
to watch in 1997, especially for the expectation that they will build too
something better.  My concern: if they think they're close to contending
for a division title, are they going to junk the rebuilding process and
try to win *now*?

If they keep building as they have been, they might become something like
Atlanta, with their long string of competitiveness.  (Four World Series
appearances in a row?  I could stand that!)  If they go for quick
competitiveness, I'm afraid they'll have a one or two year run of good
baseball, much like they did in 1983-1984, and then return to being pretty
bad.

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