Since the baseball commissioner is in denial about the juiced baseball, the All Star break gives us pause to think about the bigger issues in the game.
Baseball's overlords are still trying to dramatically tinker with the game.
So the next big push will be realignment and expansion.
For baseball purists, more the original game will be lost.
The AL and NL will be merged into one large league
after two more expansion teams enter (Las Vegas and some other cow town, like Nashville).
The divisions will be realigned geographically for owners to save costs
like the NHL did. The NHL reshuffle also was created by networks to standardize game start times, especially on the Eastern time zone.
If this was to occur, here is how things could line up:
WESTERN CONFERENCE
West Coast Division: Seattle, Oakland, San Fran, Angels
South West Division: Dodgers, Arizona, San Diego, Las Vegas
Mountain Division: Colorado, Minnesota, Kansas City, Nashville
Midwest Division: Cubs, White Sox, Milwaukee, St. Louis
EASTERN CONFERENCE
Northeast Division: Toronto, Boston, Yankees, Mets
Great Lakes Division: Detroit, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincinnati
Mid-South Division: Philadelphia, Washington, Baltimore, Atlanta
Southern Division: Tampa, Miami, Houston, Texas
162 game schedule: 150 games in conference; 12 games outside conference (playing a division 6 home and 6 away games).
Divisional winners seeded by season wins in best of 7 game series.
Conference championship decided by best of 7 series.
Conference champions best of 7 World Series
Team with most season wins = home team.
Realignment and expansion would mean DH would be mandated for all games.
Natural regional rivalries would be enhanced under this plan. Conference games would be stressed over long distance coast-to-coast travel.
