East is east, West is west - Central may be gone. MLB ponders changes.

Only problem with relegation is that MLB teams own the contracts to most players. You'd need to change that structure. Likely require the AAA teams to make some upgrades, too.

 

Sounds like the last two teams to make the playoffs would only a play a one game "series", so no long waiting period for teams 1-3.

 

Oh, I know. But the very idea is delicious.

 

I like big/no divisions, but I would rather see them wait on this until they were to get even numbers in the leagues. Perpetual interleague play just doesn't turn my crank.

Is it that horribly unfair to do the same no-division system with one league having 14 teams and another 16?

 

There are other huge massive problems with relegation such as advertising contracts, broadcasting contracts, etc etc. What do you think a TV broadcast network is gonna say if New York gets relegated? Shit, the Knicks would have been relegated out of the NBA for a few years in the 2000s.

Plus season-ticket holders, especially suite tenants, who have bought those seats on the presumption they are going to see "major league" sports. Instantly all those contracts become void.

(I won't even mention the fact that most taxpayer-financed arenas are built on the premise -- more than that, the legal specification -- that a "major league" franchise will be the tenant.)


Just like contraction, relegation is a common topic among the reality-ignorant (sports-talk radio idiots especially love the subject).

 

Selig really does do the barest minimum as commissioner.

Obviously, this should have been given careful thought prior to the talent dilution of 1998. But baseball has never been big on forecasting possible complications, that whole thinking ahead bit.

Yes, relegate the Oakland A's -- it's not as if you can't already walk up, present $40 to the club on a given night and get to coach third base.

 

The reason relegation wouldn't happen: The union. A team relegated to Triple A would also probably have to either dump players or cut their salaries to survive the next season. Unless players on relegated teams were granted free agency, there's no way they would allow that. And who sees any of those players signing with the newly-promoted Colorado Springs Sky Sox or Syracuse Chiefs?

If you think teams dumping salary at the trade deadline is bad now, imagine the Pirates a team in 15th-place team facing imminent relegation trying to dump the majority of their roster by the trade deadline because they wouldn't be able to afford paying them the next season.

Houston seems the logical choice because if they keep divisions, they move the 6th team out of the NL Central and balance the divisions by finally having five in the AL West. If they don't keep divisions, a rivalry with Texas could be a nice bone to throw at them. But if there aren't any divisions and the schedule is balanced, it doesn't matter which team changes leagues. Would anybody in either league care if the Pirates were the ones to move?

 

There's one logical team to move to the AL, and that's Milwaukee, since they were only moved to the NL to prevent this interleague-play-every-series concept that wasn't very well-thought-out in the first place.

But since it's Selig's franchise, and Selig always wanted the team in the NL because he watched the Milwaukee Braves as a kid, so they're untouchable, so another team has to be moved to protect them.

But the Brewers' more natural rivals are in the AL. Swap the Cubs for the White Sox, and the Wisconsin-Minnesota rivalry gets fired up with the Twins.

 

I would've agreed with you in 1998, but not now, time has moved on and even one-time diehard AL fans like me have embraced the NL.

Brewers fans have really taken to the NL and the Brewers really don't have any rivalries with any AL teams at all.

The phony-baloney Brewers-Twins "rivalry" is a joke, fans from both teams generally like the other team.

Can't say the same for Brewers-Cubs.

I'm surprised the Astros have emerged as the possible candidate. Not sure how the NL would feel about abandoning Texas entirely.

The AL could use another team out west or in the mountain west. There was a time when Arizona could have been moved without consent, but that time has passed.

Hell, if you want to talk about cities with an AL lineage, move the Nationals to the AL.

 

Just curious where this momentum is coming from, if declining attendance is the root. When the big market teams in New York and Los Angeles are becoming an untenable and unattended shitshow, Bud might sit up, take notice and act in whichever way he deems prudent.

 

This caught me by surprise when I saw the story Saturday. Attendance is not as big a deal as you'd think (it's still down, but average per game is way up from where it was at this time in late April/early May)...

I like the idea of Houston going to the AL and creating that natural Texas-Houston rivalry.

One thing I would do in the next CBA: MOVE OPENING DAY BACK TO A MONDAY and have every team playing games. This last season opener was such a screwy one. Only a handful of games one day, a handful on Friday and some on Saturday?? They were trying for an "Opening Weekend" type concept like the NFL does, but Final Four killed their momentum on Saturday night. I'm used to going to an opener on Monday afternoon and watching the NCAA finals that night. Natural transition.