At this writing, the last-place (in the AL East) Red Sox have the same record as the first-place Twins (in the AL Central).
This could be easily chalked up to the lingering effect of the Curse of the Bambino, the eponymous book that is actually required reading in Boston public schools (and somehow, at least as of now, has not been banned, despite the popular phrase "Banned in Boston" from a century ago), or even to the conflating of the Red Sox to Joe Btfsplk character from the Li'l Abner comic strip.
Except that the latest manifestation of the curse is as the result of a schedule change that Major League Baseball implemented starting this season — which reduced the number of intradivisional games played by each team from 76 (19 meetings in each matchup) to 52 (13 meetings in each matchup).
In retrospect, if counterintuitively, this could have been easily foreseen.
But what, if anything, can be done about it?
The first step toward setting things right is to add two expansion teams, and realign the leagues into four 4-team divisions, the best-case scenario being that these two new teams get situated in that major-league baseball desert known as the South.
Charlotte, and either Nashville or Memphis, would be the obvious front-runners, creating a scenario in which there would then be enough teams in the South to stock two four-team Southern divisions — and remember that Missouri, in which both St. Louis and Kansas City are situated, was a slave state until the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery was ratified on December 6, 1865, and Jackie Robinson had to endure horrible heckling, including having debris hurled at him, whenever he had to play on the road at St. Louis.
Even so, since the Cardinals and the Cubs are joined at the hip and are even today two of the most influential franchises in the major leagues (this is why, when the leagues were split up into two six-team divisions in 1969, the Cardinals and Cubs got their wish and were placed in the National League East, forcing the Reds and the Braves into the National League West, since the Cardinals and the Cubs did not relish the idea of playing 27 games on the West Coast every year), it would be the Royals, not the Cardinals, who would be Goin' South.
At a guess, and assuming that the two new teams do go in the South, a realigned MLB might look like this:
AL East — Baltimore, Boston, N.Y. Yankees, Toronto
AL North — Chicago White Sox, Cleveland, Detroit, Minnesota
AL South — Houston, Kansas City, Tampa Bay, Texas
AL West — Arizona, L.A. Angels, Oakland, Seattle
NL East — N.Y. Mets, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington
NL North — Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, St. Louis
NL South — Atlanta, Charlotte, Miami, "Tennessee" (either Memphis or Nashville)
NL West — Colorado, L.A. Dodgers, San Diego, San Francisco
(Having Colorado rather than Arizona switch leagues would work just as well.)
And for those who would object to the two expansion teams going into the same division, the two expansion teams added to the American League in 1969 — the Seattle Pilots and the Kansas City Royals, went into the same division (the original American League West); however, when the Washington Senators moved to Texas to become the Rangers in 1972, they switched divisions with the Pilots-turned-Milwaukee Brewers — but that in no way changes what had originally happened.
But a change in the schedule is the key: in addition to keeping the three yearly meetings between each interleague opponent, and four yearly meetings between the Mets/Yankees, Cubs/White Sox, Dodgers/Angels, etc., the number of meetings between division rivals can be increased from 13 to a more realistic 17, while 10 of a team's 12 opponents that are not in the same division. but in the same league would meet five times, and the other two six times — which means that the season series would decide every tie for either a division title, and almost every tie for a wild-card berth as between two teams that finished with the same record, one-game playoffs between such teams having been abolished in 2022.
As for the postseason, it can consist, in each league, of the four division winners plus two wild card teams making it, with the two two division winners with the best records earning a first-round bye, the third-best division winner playing the wild card with the lesser record, and the worst division winner playing the wild card with the better record.
Once the results of the Wild Card Series are determined, re-seeding occurs, and the division champion with the best record is assured of playing the first-round winner with the worst record in the Division Series.
In any event, if it is even still acceptable to use this phrase, it's time for baseball — and the NBA too — to "bite the bullet" and join the NFL and NHL in consisting of 32 teams.
Leave a Comment