.... Really? This is what this has come to?

The logical implication of Hank's comments is that there needs to be uniformity in the rules of both leagues. The current situation is absurd.

Why limit it to pitchers? Position players get hurt running the bases too. I say no more baserunning. Make it similar to stickball rules. A groundball that reaches the outfield is a single, a flyball that drops in the outfield grass is a double, and a ball that hits off the wall or lands on the track is a triple. No more baserunning injuries!

Shut the #### up fat ass.

The logical implication of Hank's comments is that there needs to be uniformity in the rules of both leagues. The current situation is absurd.

I like it. I hate watching pitchers hit, but at the same time, I understand why the DH pisses a lot of people off.

The ability to choose which style is nice. It's interleague that sucks.

The NL can hardly help it if Hank Steinbrenner hurt his Wang.

Is there some record of Hank having this position previously?

Is there some record of Hank having this position previously?

The more interesting question is whether or not he is on record as ever having articulated a contrary position.

I genuinely hope the fat sack of #### keels over dead. George Steinbrenner was just barely tolerable because he at least worked for what he owned. His ####### 51 year old son hasn't earned anyone's respect, and apparently gets all of his cues for how to conduct himself in public from watching episodes of My Super Sweet 16.

And just when you thought that New Yorkers couldn't whine any more.

he at least worked for what he owned

He did? I thought he inherited the shipbuilding company and all that money from his father?

Yeah, if it wasn't for running the bases, Warren Spahn would've won 400 games.

I really hate to defend Steinbrenner, but he reportedly helped to turn around the family business and then had the sense to buy the Yankees on the cheap after the franchise had fallen into disrepair, which of course turned out to be a brilliant move. I'm not saying he was a rags to riches story, just that he was a big part of the success of the family business and his ownership of the Yankees was a very successful business venture. Hank is like 6 months removed from being the idiot son that had George scrambling to find someone else to take over the club.

Hank is easily my all time favorite Yankee already. What has it been, 6 months?

Hank should retire Hank's number already. Build himself a statue of himself .. in center.

I knew someone would make this argument. It's fantastic that this idiotic argument was made by the game's reigning idiot. Hopefully the argument will be tarnished.

The logical implication of Hank's comments is that there needs to be uniformity in the rules of both leagues. The current situation is absurd.

I also find it absurd that every park has different dimensions. It makes no sense that a homerun in one park is a flyball out in another. Every park should be the same.

I also find it absurd that every park has different dimensions. It makes no sense that a homerun in one park is a flyball out in another. Every park should be the same

and the first park that needs fixing is Fenway.
Mr Selig, "TEAR DOWN THAT WALL!!

I also find it absurd that every park has different dimensions. It makes no sense that a homerun in one park is a flyball out in another. Every park should be the same.

Because there was a time when all baseball parks had uniform dimensions? Oh wait...

Yeah, but then you have the ball traveling better in some places due to weather/altitude. We should move all games to domes to ensure the same conditions.

DH or no DH, or no interleague play. It's not that complicated, except for the WS.

Because there was a time when all baseball parks had uniform dimensions?

Yes. There would have been a time when there was only one baseball park.

The logical implication of Hank's comments is that there needs to be uniformity in the rules of both leagues.

HS doesn't talk in implications. He's not that smart.

Does he sit near the field? Someone should throw a pitch at this guy.

Shut the #### up fat ass.

Wow. I actually agree with a Beano post.

Well, obviously, this is the fault of the Yankee's manager, since he didn't adjust his lineup to the conditions. If he'd ordered Wang to swing futilely (hittable or not) at the first three pitches instead of actually trying to play the game, Wang would be healthy. Since Hank is so intent on following in his father's footsteps, obviously Girardi needs to be fired.

Sometimes you gotta swing the Wang... No matter what kind of trouble you might get yourself into.

Shut the #### up fat ass.

BeanoCook wins the thread with #4.

You know the East Coast Bias will get pitchers batting banished now within a season or two - it took one bad call in a Yankees/Mets game on national TV to add instant replay in a matter of weeks, so consider the batting pitcher NL staple gone after the next collective bargaining.

Micah Owings, Carlos Zambrano, and Adam Wainwright are not pleased.

Where can I find a detailed study on the effects of the DH in interleague and W.S. play? It seems so clear that the AL has an unfair advantage due to the different roster construction requirements needed for the different set of rules. Most of the NL bench guys are glove men that don't hit much. There are very few if any guys on NL benches that would make it as a "first string" AL DH.

I was looking at DH splits for the leagues at BB-Ref
So far this year in 41 G, the NL DH's are hitting .206, with a .540 OPS and 2 HR, 15 RBI in 177 PA. Pitiful
The avg AL DH this year is hitting .248, with a .757 OPS.
I would assume that gap will narrow some. Last year the avg AL DH had a .802 OPS, and the NL DH's had a .787 OPS
In 2006 the gap was huge too.....AL DH OPS .819, NL DH OPS .675

Freak injuries to pitchers always make me think about how amazing and lucky guys like Maddux and Glavine have been in their careers.

One thing I was wondering. Could you make the all the bases like home plate: flush with the ground? Do you really need rectangular bags that any runners could get injured running at full speed? Could baseball try experimenting with this in the minors or spring training? Hank would be better with this argument, if umpires can make proper out/safe calls.

The logical implication of Hank's comments is that there needs to be uniformity in the rules of both leagues. The current situation is absurd.

Man, you read that way different than I do.

“My only message is simple: The National League needs to join the 21st century,” Steinbrenner said. “They need to grow up and join the 21st century. I’ve got my pitchers running the bases, and one of them gets hurt. He’s going to be out. I don’t like that, and it’s about time they address it. That was a rule from the 1800s.”

reads to me exactly like he's saying that the AL has the better rules. I don't mind the uniformity argument, that we should just pick something for both leagues without really arguing which would be better to pick, though I dislike the DH more than the disformity. But I don't see how Hank is making that argument here. He's flat-out saying that the NL is completely wrong and backwards for not having the DH.

You know the East Coast Bias will get pitchers batting banished now within a season or two - it took one bad call in a Yankees/Mets game on national TV to add instant replay in a matter of weeks, so consider the batting pitcher NL staple gone after the next collective bargaining.

The only East Coast bias that would really mean anything would be to realign the leagues along the lines of a Jim Crow bus, with the AL filling up from Boston westward and the NL from San Diego eastward. There are 14 teams currently located in the Eastern Time Zone. Put them all in the AL, and let the rest of the country fend for itself. This way 99% of the regular season games in the East could all end before midnight, and virtually no games in the West would ever be over before the end of rush hour. Not to mention the travel and scheduling nightmares that would disappear in a blink. Abolish interleague play, and the leagues could keep their separate DH / no DH customs without irritating anyone from the other league.

Other than tradition, which is nearly always rooted in regional rivalries to begin with, there is no rational reason why such a realignment shouldn't be done. It could jack up the World Series ratings like nothing else, because once again there'd be a rivalry based on something tangible: mutual regional loathing and a renewed league rivalry.

Oh, and have all postseason games, including the World Series, start at 7:00 by the home team's local time. That will provide the extra benefit of giving the fans a real rooting interest in the outcome of the All-Star game.

As for Steinbrenner: Listening to Steinbrenner on matters regarding the good of baseball makes about as much sense as paying attention to Ann Coulter or Noam Chomsky regarding political matters. Why bother?

Andy, you're not seriously arguing for that, are you?

reads to me exactly like he's saying that the AL has the better rules.

He cleared that up when he was making the rounds of the media outlets and talked to the Post in a Pro-DH column:

"It's time the National League joins the 21st century," Steinbrenner told The Post, "or is forced to join. The National League is playing the same way it did in the 1880s. That's over with. The National League should have the designated hitter. There's no question the National League should have it."
...
Steinbrenner said the Yankees will be sure to talk to Commissioner Bud Selig about making the DH a reality for National League clubs... Steinbrenner does not think the NL will change but he will do his best to protect his players and try to put that change into place, even if it opens him up to criticism.

"I don't think they will do it because they still haven't caught up with what happened in the 20th century," Steinbrenner said. "It might have been OK for pitchers to hit in 1910, but not now."

Andy, you're not seriously arguing for that, are you?

Not in the sense that I'd ever expect it to happen, but tradition aside, what exactly is wrong with the idea?

One of baseball's biggest drawbacks in maintaining fan interest is the simple fact that so many games either start before most people in the West get home, or end after most people in the East go to bed. You could solve 99% of the eastern part of the problem, and most of the western part as well, by this simple realignment. And imagine how much money you'd be saving in travel costs in the age when oil costs $130 a barrel.

To what extent does the anticipation of a Phillies-Diamondbacks regular season game, as opposed to a Phillies-Tigers game, override all that? Is there anything inherently more fascinating about a Yankees-Angels game than a Yankees-Reds game? Or a Padres-Marlins game as opposed to a Padres-A's game?

The sole counterargument I can see is tradition, centered in historic rivalries. But nearly all of those great rivalries take place among teams in the same time zone to begin with, and wouldn't be affected. The only exceptions would be the sort of transient, on / off rivalries involving a handful of eastern and midwestern teams such as the Mets and the Cubs. But the truth is that new rivalries would quickly spring up to replace them: the Cubs and the White Sox and the Yankees and the Mets, just to take the most obvious examples. In fact nearly all, if not all, of the best current interleague matchups would be enhanced rather than eliminated under this realignment. Do a mental sweep of the map and you'll see what I mean.

I actually made that first post on a whim, but the more I think about it, the better I like it.

So I repeat : Beyond tradition, what, exactly, is wrong with this idea? The leagues themselves have all but abandoned their historic roots anyway, so what not at least introduce a bit of logic to their lineups?

I like both the current situation and interleague play. I strongly prefer DH ball but it's always entertaining to see the pitchers out there hitting for a few games each season.

Didn't someone joke yesterday that they were waiting for Hank to blame interleague Wang's injury? It's funny cause it's true.

Did anyone else see Bartolo Colon's swings in Philly last night? They looked like what you'd expect if you showed a spastic 6 yr old a Bugs Bunny cartoon and told him "thats how you hit a baseball."

He actually managed to spin his batting helmet off his head. And of course he aggravated his back injury and left after 4 innings.

To sum up: I do not care to see pitchers hit, as most of the time it is not really good baseball, even if it is occasionally entertaining. It is almost never going to be more entertaining than listening to Hankenstein spout off, though.

ocd, Colon was wildly entertaining. However, if you have a back injury you should not be wailing away with a Baseball Bugs' corkscrew swing. The cause of this re-injury is mainly stupidity.
Did you watch Cole Hamels bat? He is actually fun to watch swing the bat.

Andy, I do not think your proposal is stark raving mad.
Another proposal is to do what China does -- put the whole country in one time zone. :)

1. Force NL to adopt DH rule.

2. Demand for poorly-fielding sluggers rises.

3. Jason Giambi is traded to the Mets for Johan Santana.

I like both games.

With pitchers hitting, you get the regular strategic impasse around taking out your starter in important hitting situations, as well as associated bullpen management problems. You also get the symmetry of having every player on the field hit.

With the DH, you get David Ortiz.

If I had to pick one, it'd be the NL game. I weigh the deontological concerns more heavily - every player ought to be a two-way player, that's the heart of sport. But I'm happy having both available in my life.

3. Jason Giambi is traded to the Mets for Johan Santana.

This is the Mets you're talking about. It'll be Jeremy Giambi.

Freak injuries to pitchers always make me think about how amazing and lucky guys like Maddux and Glavine have been in their careers.

These guys were never terribly aggressive base runners.

If pitchers took hitting seriously throughout their careers they'd be much better at it. Many wouldn't be good, but they wouldn't be laughable.

I think, if they change to the DH in the NL, I'll spend the following year travelling around the country clubbing AL pitchers in the knee. There may be more DH fans out there, but I guarantee you're not as crazy as us anti-DHers.

wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh wahhhhhhhhhhhhh boooooooooo hooooooooooo

Hank should retire Hank's number already. Build himself a statue of himself .. in center.

Why not? They already have a statue at shortstop.

Edmundo(Erstwhile Master of Diagramming Sentences) Posted: June 17, 2008 at 08:09 AM (#2822459)

Andy, I do not think your proposal is stark raving mad.
Another proposal is to do what China does -- put the whole country in one time zone. :)

Not a bad idea: The Eastern Time Zone :)

In return, LA can have the lyrics to New York, New York, the part about waking up in a city that never sleeps.

Maybe you should stop acquiring frangible pitchers, jackass.

How about this: The NL adopts the DH, but play all their games in throw-back uniforms.

How about this: The NL adopts the DH, but play all their games in throw-back uniforms.

Or the AL teams can let their designated hitters pitch.

I know this will sound screwy, but I actually think that, from a PR standpoint, Steinbrenner is doing the right thing by issuing some bluster against the NL rules and interleague. Your team just lost your best pitcher, which might bust your already-disappointing season. You can talk to the press and say "ho-hum, it's a freak injury. They happen sometimes. No big deal." Or you can pick up a strawman and rail against it, and you'll have plenty of people saying "hey, he's sticking up for his team." We might know better, and I doubt Hank thought it out this way, but it's certainly better to blame an injury on an outside party than on the manager, training staff, the player himself, etc.

I think Wang got on base originally by futilely trying to bunt and having the runner at second out on a force. It was almost a DP, but the Wanger beat the relay throw.

Cardinals pitchers in 2008 are getting on base 23.4% of the time. They also have 2 homers and 21 rbi, which I'll bet are more than some teams' other positions have generated, despite having fewer PAs. Pitchers as hitters don't have to be as clueless as Bartolo Colon apparently is.

On Sunday's Phils-Cardinals game Brett Myers started the Philly comeback with a leadoff single in the 5th. That the Cardinal starter couldn't retire his counterpart led to his exit later that same inning and ultimately to the Cardinals surrendering the lead in a game they had led 5-1.

If some positions on some teams yield players reaching base barely more than 30% of the time, I just don't think it's such a joke that there are other positions that are reaching "only" 23% of the time.

If pitchers reached base on average, say, once or twice a week and as a group looked completely clueless and overmatched, then I would have to concede that maybe pitchers shouldn't hit. But as their performance isn't so dramatically worse than that of other established groups of "hitters," I think it would be ridiculous to eliminate the fun of regularly experiencing pitchers contributing to their teams' offensive successes.

I agree. Asking professional athletes to run seems like a bit too much..

Cardinals pitchers in 2008 are getting on base 23.4% of the time.

So? What does one staff's OBP have to do with anything? The average NL pitcher gets on base about 18.4% of the time, which is exceptionally terrible. They slug .183! I mean, bully for the Cards to have one or two pitchers that can hit as good as Tony Pena Jr., but that doesn't change the fact that pitchers as a whole are essentially useless while batting.

If some positions on some teams yield players reaching base barely more than 30% of the time, I just don't think it's such a joke that there are other positions that are reaching "only" 23% of the time.

23% for one team in 1/3 of the season is likely an unsustainably high number and not particularly useful for this discussion. If this was the norm, then you might be correct.

I don't know where the line is, but it does exist from my aesthetic point of view. Pitchers are well below it.

That's right, Hank! And we'll be after Joba next! You cannot stop the NL, you can only hope to contain it!

"So? What does one staff's OBP have to do with anything? The average NL pitcher gets on base about 18.4% of the time, which is exceptionally terrible. They slug .183! I mean, bully for the Cards to have one or two pitchers that can hit as good as Tony Pena Jr., but that doesn't change the fact that pitchers as a whole are essentially useless while batting."

And firstbasemen hit more than shortstops.. we're not going to get rid of shortstops. I don't see why it matters what pitchers hit.
Baseball is 9 vs. 9. Some positions are better at scoring runs and others are better at preventing them (pitchers for one).

I guess it's no more demented to obsess about league realignment than it is about politics, so what the hell.

What's wrong with this setup, with the AL in the East with the DH, and the NL in the Midwest and West without it? You can rename them the Eastern League and the Western League in order to accentuate the World Series rivalry:

Eastern League 1
Yanks
Mets
Red Sox
Toronto

Eastern League 2
Phillies
Orioles
Nats
Tigers
Indians

Eastern League 3
Reds
Pirates
Braves
Marlins
Devil Rays

Western League 1
Mariners
Giants
A's
Dodgers
Angels
Padres

Western League 2
Rockies
Diamondbacks
Rangers
Astros
Brewers

Western League 3
Twins
White Sox
Cubs
Cardinals
Royals

It will give you loads of natural (and many former interleague) rivalries without the necessity for interleague play.

It will restore a real sense of rivalry between the two leagues, and restore the World Series to its former luster. Not to mention the "this time it counts" aspect of the renewed All-Star game.

It will save tens of millions of dollars in travel expenses.

It will improve the quality of the game, due to the greatly reduced jet lag factor.

And it will be a hit with tens of millions of fans who will now be able to see far more of their favorite team's games from start to finish.

Again, it won't happen. But why? Because of inertia, pure and simple. There's no other rational reason to oppose this other than fear of the unknown. You're not losing any real rivalries---you're gaining them. And think of the cost of jet fuel these days.

I'd really like for someone to attack this on any serious grounds. The only one I can think of is that at present the stronger franchises are mostly in the East, but that's hardly a permanent given. And admittedly it would steam a lot of Yankee and Red Sox fans in their many current home away from homes in the Midwest and West. But that's a minor blip in an otherwise Nobel Prizeworthy proposition that's already been endorsed by 4 out of 5 leading New York doctors.

Hank is just trying to take attention away from all the good news being generated by the Mets.

And I thought the owners wanted to get rid of the DH, but the players' union won't let them

I'd really like for someone to attack this on any serious grounds. The only one I can think of is that at present the stronger franchises are mostly in the East, but that's hardly a permanent given.

I think you could divide it better (there's really no reasonable grounds for the Brewers being in Western League 2), but it's a reasonable place to start.

Andy, I'd just swap the Indians and Pirates (or Reds and Phillies) to get the cross-state division rivalries in that division. The Brewers also would seem out of place in the Western League 2. Maybe swap them and the Royals? Or move the Pads from 1 to 2 and move the Brewers to 3?

Andy, I like this idea, however it gets done. Realigning teams/divisions/leagues is much less of a problem, to me, than changing things on the field.

I think with the rising fuel prices, it makes a lot of sense, too. You could even promote it as a "green" realignment and make serious PR headway with a relatively untapped part of the population.

Some quibbles:

I'd switch the Astros and Brewers.

I was going to say add a third New York team, or a team in New Jersey. But you'd have to add one more, too and it would have to be an eastern team. Where to put it? No idea.

With a little revision in the East

NE Division
Yanks
Mets
Red Sox
Phillies

Great Lakes/Ohio Valley Division
Toronto
Tigers
Indians
Reds
Pirates

Southern Division
Braves
Marlins
Devil Rays
Orioles
Nats

The Brewers in the west makes as much sense as the Cubs or White Sox in the west.

The Philly-Pittsburgh rivalry isn't that strong. It was stronger in the 70s when the Pirates and Phillies went toe-to-toe for a few years but it is non-existent now. Philly is as close to Boston as it is Pittsburgh; there are 4 Major League franchises closer geographically.
EDIT: Spelled Pittsburgh consistently

23% for one team in 1/3 of the season is likely an unsustainably high number and not particularly useful for this discussion. If this was the norm, then you might be correct.

22.6% in full 2007 season
22.4% in full 2006 season

21.6% over last five full seasons, which obviously doesn't include this year's 23.4%.

Again, I'm not claiming this represents offensive prowess. I'm saying that seeing games changed frequently by pitchers' at-bats is more fun and exciting than eliminating that part of the game and adding another non-field-playing hitter to the lineup---just another bat.

I don't know where the line is, but it does exist from my aesthetic point of view. Pitchers are well below it.

I agree that the line does exist from my aesthetic point of view as well. Reaching base about 1/4 of the time isn't it for me. Reaching base 10% of the time would be. But the difference between pitchers and some other crappy-hitting position on a club is often less of a difference between that crappy-hitting position and the 2nd- or 3rd-best hitting position.

It's not as if the dropoff from a team's (2b, ss, c, cf, wherever the weak bat may reside) to its pitcher is by some order of magnitude---if it were I would agree with the anti-hitting-pitcher crowd.

Using Andy's teams, Edmundo's is the optimal distribution in the AL.

Using Andy's teams, Edmundo's is the optimal distribution in the AL.

Indeed. Here's how'd I'd do the NL.

Western League 1
Mariners
Giants
A's
Dodgers
Angels
Padres

Western League 2
Rockies
Diamondbacks
Rangers
Astros
Royals

Western League 3
Twins
White Sox
Cubs
Cardinals
Brewers

Eastern League 1
Yanks
Mets
Red Sox
Toronto

As a Blue Jays fan, I say f*ck this!

Great Lakes/Ohio Valley Division
Toronto
Tigers
Indians
Reds
Pirates

That's better!

Thanks for the feedback, and obviously there's no one perfect set of groupings. (I do like Edmundo's revision.) The one I struggled with the most was whether to split up the Brewers and Twins or the Rangers and the Astros. Ideally you'd keep them both paired together, but then you'd have one division with only four teams.

The overall point, though, is that as much as I like the traditonal AL and NL, just about the ONLY thing that distinguishes the two leagues these days is the DH rule. That's fun to debate, but it's not exactly a life or death matter.

There's no real interleague rivalry to speak of any more, and the scheduling nightmares and the jet lag problem (both for players and fans) seem like an overly steep price to pay in order to accommodate a few games a year for the benefit of a few thousand Yankees or Red Sox fans in Oakland or Chicago. I would think that all the added Yankees-Mets or Cubs-Sox games (etc.) would more than make up for that.

My ideal realignment:

AL East
Baltimore
Boston
Detroit
Cleveland
New York
Tampa Bay
Toronto

AL West
Chicago
Kansas City
Los Angeheim
Minnesota
Oakland
Seattle
Texas

NL East
Atlanta
Chicago
Florida
New York
St. Louis
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
Washington

NL West
Arizona
Cincinnati
Colorado
Houston
Los Angeles
Milwaukee
San Diego
San Francisco

4 division winners, no wild card. Milwaukee's kinda annoying to deal with.

Milwaukee's kinda annoying to deal with.

Hell, Brewers fans have less of a complaint than the folks from Cincinnati under the Szym system.

I've always suspected that Selig's ultimate goal is complete regional realignment, although I think you'd want to add two more teams, and thus have eight divisions of four teams each. (Hopefully, there wouldn't be any wildcards, but there probably would be.) I don't think I prefer this, but it does have its own very consistent internal logic, so it would certainly beat the current mishigoss.

Just have the AL pitchers follow Bowden's trailblazing use of the Segway.

Hell, Brewers fans have less of a complaint than the folks from Cincinnati under the Szym system.

Or what both the Braves and Reds fans had to endure from 1969 to 1993, when they were stuck in the same division with three teams that were each three time zones removed.

Milwaukee's kinda annoying to deal with.

Contract them.

and the first park that needs fixing is Fenway.
Mr Selig, "TEAR DOWN THAT WALL!!

Wow. I actually agree with a Beano post.

First time Gambling Rent has ever made me laugh, that post is still giving me a chuckle. The good news is Hank should be good for 20+ fun threads a year.

The Brewers and Reds can be contracted. Note I said the TEAMS can be contracted, in other words compressed into one team, located halfway between Cincinnati and Milwaukee. Which would be...Peru, Indiana. With its rich show business heritage. Perfect.

As a Pittsburgher I am continually bamboozled by how MLB schedules some teams to play their regional rivals in interleague play year after year, and yet the Pirates never play the Indians. There is only one city that Pittsburgh has any sort of rivalry with, in sports or otherwise, and it's Cleveland. Indians games would draw a crowd as big as the Yankees games in PNC Park.

The Brewers and Reds can be contracted. Note I said the TEAMS can be contracted, in other words compressed into one team, located halfway between Cincinnati and Milwaukee. Which would be...Peru, Indiana. Which seems to have a rich show business heritage. Perfect.

Ah yes. One of about three dozen cities that claim to be the Circus Capital of the U.S.

Combining the Brewers and Reds could give you some good options for nicknames.

The Red Stripes, maybe.

What's the closest minor league stadium to a point equidistant from Milwaukee and Cincinnati? Is there one in South Bend? The Red Stripes could play there. I am pretty sure there isn't a team in Peru or Lafayette.

: Steinbrenner: NL responsible for Wang injury

You hire Lorena Bobbitt as league commissioner, you accept the risk of the consequences.

No more Yankee my Hankee, the Wanger need foot.

Andy, I love the idea. What if, after time zones, the divisions were determined by team revenue:

East High
Yankees
Red Sox
Mets
Phillies
Braves

East Mid
Orioles
Indians
Nationals
Reds
Tigers

East Low
Pirates
Blue Jays
Marlins
Rays

West High
Dodgers
Mariners
Cubs
Giants
Cardinals

West Mid
Astros
Padres
Rangers
Angels
Rockies
Diamondbacks

West Low
White Sox
Brewers
Royals
A's
Twins


That would give two low revenue teams automatic playoff bids every year. And it might give teams the incentive to spend at least a little bit more on the field, since it takes away their built in excuse and makes it easier to compete within the division.

Milwaukee's kinda annoying to deal with.

When the NBA had realignment, the Timberwolves were pretty tough to deal with.

Ah yes. One of about three dozen cities that claim to be the Circus Capital of the U.S.

But only Milwaukee has the Clown HOF.

Is there one in South Bend?

Yes, the Diamondbacks have a team there.

But only Milwaukee has the Clown HOF.

It took them 10 years to induct Charlie Chaplin, and they still haven't inducted Buster Keaton.

Hard to take that HOF seriously.

Swap Cincy for Toronto and swap the Angels into the High, Cardinals and White Sox into the Mid and Rockies into the low.

You'd whine too if it was your wang that got injured.

I know I hate it when I step on my penis.

Swap Cincy for Toronto and swap the Angels into the High, Cardinals and White Sox into the Mid and Rockies into the low.

I just realized I was using 2005 numbers. Perhaps this would need to be done with an eye on realignment every so many years.

indianapolis south bend and gary all have minor league teams, lafayette wouldnt even be able to support low a ball, and in peru most are too damn intrested in their meth labs to do much else.

indianapolis south bend and gary all have minor league teams, lafayette wouldnt even be able to support low a ball, and in peru most are too damn intrested in their meth labs to do much else.

Lafayette had an independent team about 15 years ago. It folded quickly.

im not surprised, if people want to see sports they go to purdue

It didn't help that the only place to play games was at the park (the one with the zoo), so there were no alcohol sales.

wait theres a park with a zoo there? i had no idea

I kind of like Andy's East vs West setup.

It's funny. I was reading somewhere that the NL was originally looking to make their two divisions equal in strength (as in, each would have about the same number of good, mediocre, and crappy teams.) The divisions would be rebalanced every so often as needed. You could periodically realign EL 1, 2, & 3 as well as WL 1, 2, & 3.

Cardinals pitchers in 2008 are getting on base 23.4% of the time.

The Mariners would kill to get this out of their 1B slot.
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OK, that was hyperbole. Still, .234 beats the BA for M's 1B, 3B, DH, and RF.

wait theres a park with a zoo there? i had no idea

Columbian Park. It wasn't much of a zoo (I haven't been there in at least a decade), but it had a few animals.