There has been a lot of talk recently about something called “floating realignment.”
In essence, the talk breaks down to this: Because the Yankees and Red Sox are in such dominating positions financially — thanks largely to their regional cable networks — the game sees a need to realign its divisions annually to create opportunities for lesser franchises to compete for postseason play.
The basic premise of divisional play was to allow geography to determine who plays in what division. When there were only 24 teams, there were four six-team divisions. When Major League Baseball expanded to 26, it had a 14-team American League and a 12-team National League. Two more teams in the NL resulted in four seven-team divisions — but only briefly. To expand the playoffs, both the AL and NL went to three divisions, creating two with five and one with four in each league but still basically geographic.
Then came the 1998 expansion, which added teams in Arizona and Tampa Bay. With 30 teams, an even split would cause one team to be idle every day in a 15-team league. As a result, Bud Selig’s team, the Brewers, moved to the NL along with the new Diamondbacks, creating a 16-team NL. The AL remained at 14 teams. The NL Central had six teams, while the AL West had only four.
On its face, a 15-team league does appear to present a scheduling problem, but the solution would have been — and is — simple.
Interleague play started in 1997, the year before the most recent expansion. With interleague play — and three five-team divisions in each league — you could schedule 15 games a day, one of which always would be interleague. Instead, MLB went with two dedicated interleague playing periods, during which there always was the one stray NL matchup.
Baseball also introduced an unbalanced schedule, meaning teams would play division opponents 18 times and nondivision opponents from the same league as few as six times. In the AL East, that imbalance has led to this “floating” proposal. The Yankees and Red Sox have finished first or second in the East every year since 1998 except 2006, when Toronto finished second behind New York, and 2008, when the Rays finished first ahead of Boston.
Two 15-team leagues makes so much sense, it’s amazing it has not been at least a rumor along the way. A schedule could work like this, still using the unbalanced premise: 14 games against division teams (56 games), nine games against nondivision teams in the same league (90) and 16 interleague games. Move the Brewers — or somebody else — to the AL.
If interleague play is here to stay — and it seems to be despite lackluster matchups beyond the traditional regional ones — isn’t this worth a shot? Annual realignment sure isn’t.
Phil Wood is a contributor to Nats Xtra on MASN. Contact him at [email protected].
