I
love baseball, it is by far my favorite professional sport to watch as both a
casual observer and as a crazy fan that studies every pitch or sequence, breaking down the never-ending
mind games and strategy that going on during the games. That being said, baseball does have its
flaws, so today I am here to fix them.
The four issues that I want to address about Major League
Baseball are the scheduling, Interleague play, the designated hitter and
expansion. I think there should be
something done about a salary cap and revenue sharing as well, but that is for another
time and another place. We will knock
off the last three first, and leave the biggest issue in my mind, scheduling,
for last.
DESIGNATED HITTER:
This will be short and sweet; the designated hitter is no more. There is no sense to have half the teams in baseball playing by one set of rules, while the other half plays by different rules. This doesn’t happen in any other sport, and shouldn’t be happening in baseball.
This will be short and sweet; the designated hitter is no more. There is no sense to have half the teams in baseball playing by one set of rules, while the other half plays by different rules. This doesn’t happen in any other sport, and shouldn’t be happening in baseball.
The push back from the player’s union would be that we are
cutting a job from the league. In
response to that I would expand rosters to 26, but in doing that I would also
add that at no time can any roster have more than 13 pitchers on their roster
at one time. This roster expansion is
created to add a bat that can be used in pinch-hitting situation and to replace
the bat lost by the DH, not to booster the bullpens.
INTERLEAGUE PLAY:
In my mind Interleague play in baseball has run its course. Sure, there are some heated rivalries in places like northern California, Chicago, New York and even in the DC-Baltimore region, but for everyone one of those series, we have places like Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Texas that have no natural rival. In those cities, Interleague play is nothing special. It is just another series. Maybe the worst part about Interleague play is how the uneven scheduling effects the standings and playoff races. You don’t think the St. Louis Cardinals, who finished 1 GB of the Giants in the wild card race this year, would have rather played the A’s as their natural rival than the defending World Series Champion Royals? Yes, it is cool to get to see the Yankees and Red Sox come to your city every few years if you live in an NL town, or the Cubs and Dodgers if you live in an AL town, but are those few instances worth having to sit through a random series with the Marlins or Twins? Probably not. I liked it when guys like Greg Maddux pitched in the World Series against Derek Jeter and it was the 1st time that those two halls of famers ever met in a game. That doesn’t happen anymore. Interleague was fun while it lasted and will be missed by some, but not by most. It is no longer.
In my mind Interleague play in baseball has run its course. Sure, there are some heated rivalries in places like northern California, Chicago, New York and even in the DC-Baltimore region, but for everyone one of those series, we have places like Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Texas that have no natural rival. In those cities, Interleague play is nothing special. It is just another series. Maybe the worst part about Interleague play is how the uneven scheduling effects the standings and playoff races. You don’t think the St. Louis Cardinals, who finished 1 GB of the Giants in the wild card race this year, would have rather played the A’s as their natural rival than the defending World Series Champion Royals? Yes, it is cool to get to see the Yankees and Red Sox come to your city every few years if you live in an NL town, or the Cubs and Dodgers if you live in an AL town, but are those few instances worth having to sit through a random series with the Marlins or Twins? Probably not. I liked it when guys like Greg Maddux pitched in the World Series against Derek Jeter and it was the 1st time that those two halls of famers ever met in a game. That doesn’t happen anymore. Interleague was fun while it lasted and will be missed by some, but not by most. It is no longer.
EXPANSION:
With no Interleague play, 15 team leagues don’t work. Now we either re-align or we expand. I vote for expansion (with maybe a little re-alignment too.) We are expanding to 32 teams, which gives us 16 teams per league. Now, do we have four 8-team division or do we go with eight 4-team divisions? After that we need to decide which two cities should be getting MLB teams. I considered returning a team to Montreal, but opted for two US cities. Our two newest cities are Portland, OR and Charlotte, NC. I also considered Austin and Indianapolis, but finalized on these two. The reasoning was somewhat simple, both cities already support professional sports teams. They both also have had very successful minor league teams over the years, which shows that there is a baseball fan base in those cities. Finally, and maybe most importantly, these are the two biggest TV markets in the US that don’t already have teams.
With no Interleague play, 15 team leagues don’t work. Now we either re-align or we expand. I vote for expansion (with maybe a little re-alignment too.) We are expanding to 32 teams, which gives us 16 teams per league. Now, do we have four 8-team division or do we go with eight 4-team divisions? After that we need to decide which two cities should be getting MLB teams. I considered returning a team to Montreal, but opted for two US cities. Our two newest cities are Portland, OR and Charlotte, NC. I also considered Austin and Indianapolis, but finalized on these two. The reasoning was somewhat simple, both cities already support professional sports teams. They both also have had very successful minor league teams over the years, which shows that there is a baseball fan base in those cities. Finally, and maybe most importantly, these are the two biggest TV markets in the US that don’t already have teams.
Now the tough part, breaking up the current division formats
and recreating a better one. For
logistics stake, we put Portland in the American League and Charlotte in the
National League. I really wanted to 4
divisions of 8 teams in each division, but I think that makes the playoff
situation a little more difficult. I
also factored in that with larger divisions, the playoff races aren’t as
exciting and fewer teams are in contention longer in the season than with 8
divisions of 4 teams. We will now have 8
divisions of 4 teams in each division (4 divisions in each league). We are dividing up the divisions
geographically. Each league will have an
EAST, WEST, SOUTH and CENTRAL division.
Here are the divisions:
AMERICAN LEAGUE-
AMERICAN LEAGUE-
EAST WEST SOUTH CENTRAL
Baltimore LA Arizona (flipped from NL) Chicago
Boston Oakland Houston Cleveland
New York Portland Kansas City Detroit
Toronto Seattle Texas Minnesota
Baltimore LA Arizona (flipped from NL) Chicago
Boston Oakland Houston Cleveland
New York Portland Kansas City Detroit
Toronto Seattle Texas Minnesota
NATIONAL LEAGUE-
EAST WEST SOUTH CENTRAL
New
York Colorado Atlanta Chicago
Philadelphia LA Charlotte Cincinnati
Pittsburgh San
Diego Miami Milwaukee
Washington San
Francisco Tampa Bay
(flipped from AL) St. Louis
SCHEDULING:
In my mind baseball needs more days off and fewer games. Not a ton fewer, but fewer. This year in MLB teams played 162 games in 181 days. My schedule is for 156 games in 175 games. 6 fewer games and still done with 19 scheduled off days. However, my schedule includes 6 scheduled double headers. Every teams will play will play host to their 3 division opponents in a scheduled double header throughout the season. These double headers can be scheduled however the home team would like (Classic, Day-Night, Twi-Night). Every teams will be able to expand their roster by 1 the day of a double header and each team will have a scheduled day off following all scheduled double headers. This creates 6 more off days during the season for the players.
In my mind baseball needs more days off and fewer games. Not a ton fewer, but fewer. This year in MLB teams played 162 games in 181 days. My schedule is for 156 games in 175 games. 6 fewer games and still done with 19 scheduled off days. However, my schedule includes 6 scheduled double headers. Every teams will play will play host to their 3 division opponents in a scheduled double header throughout the season. These double headers can be scheduled however the home team would like (Classic, Day-Night, Twi-Night). Every teams will be able to expand their roster by 1 the day of a double header and each team will have a scheduled day off following all scheduled double headers. This creates 6 more off days during the season for the players.
The season will always begin on the 2nd Sunday of
April. For the 1st week of
the season, all games will be played in either a domed stadium or a warm
weather climate. For the final weekend
of the season, all teams will play against teams from their division. In September, with expanded rosters, each
team will only be allowed to declare 26 players eligible for a given game (27
if playing a doubleheader).
The actual scheduling of the games will be simple. Each team will play 48 division games,
playing each opponent 16 times each (8 away, 8 home). All divisional series will be 4-game
series. Each team will play 108 out of
division games, playing each opponent 9 times each. All non-division series will be 3-game
series.
PLAYOFF SCHEDLING-
There will still be 5 playoff teams from each league making the playoffs, 4
division winners and 1 wildcard winner.
The difference in that we will no longer have a “Wild Card” game, but a
“Play-In” game. With only 1 wild card
winner, it doesn’t make sense to call it a wild card game and take away from a
team that won their division. Instead the
wild card winner, will play on the road at the division winner with the worst
record. Those teams will play 1 game to
advance into the MLB Postseason. The
division winner with the best record hosts the winner of the Play-In game,
while the other 2 division winners also play, with home field for the series
decided by season record (tiebreaker would be head-to-head record).
An important change to the postseason scheduling that I am
making, is doing away with travel days in the middle of the series. This changes the structure of a series too
much and allows pitcher dominant teams to rely on one or two pitchers to carry
them to a series victory. By limiting the
extra off days in the middle of postseason series, it forces teams to play more
like they did in the regular season, which is how they got to the postseason in
the first place. The only off days in
any series (both best of 5 series and best of 7) will come after Game 4. This also avoids the postseason carrying on
into November like it is scheduled to this year if it returns to Cleveland for
Games 6 and 7.
Sadly, most of these changes will probably never happen, but
in my mind, they should. Anyway, enjoy
the rest of the World Series.
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