{"id":84998,"date":"2025-08-29T05:55:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T09:55:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=84998"},"modified":"2025-08-27T17:47:55","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T21:47:55","slug":"discuss-completely-realigning-baseball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2025\/08\/discuss-completely-realigning-baseball\/","title":{"rendered":"DISCUSS: Completely Realigning Baseball"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Instead of arguing about politics or religion, let\u2019s take up a really<\/em> contentious topic:\u00a0 sports!<\/p>\n

Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred has put forward a radical proposal to completely realign Major League Baseball<\/a>:<\/p>\n

(1) Get rid of the American and National Leagues.<\/p>\n

(2) Add two more expansion teams, to two cities that are clamoring for one, such as Nashville, Salt Lake City, or Charlotte.\u00a0 That would mean a total of 16 teams.<\/p>\n

(3) Create four regional divisions of four teams each.<\/p>\n

(4)\u00a0 At the end of the season, have a playoff, featuring the top two teams in each division, culminating in the World Series.<\/p>\n

\n

This would be similar to how the NFL operates.\u00a0 Regional divisions, says Manfred, would cut travel costs and minimize the time zone issues (for example, when the Dodgers play the Yankees in New York, a 7:00 p.m. start is 10:00 p.m. in California).<\/p>\n

The downside is that the Dodgers wouldn\u2019t play the Yankees, except in the playoffs.\u00a0 The new plan would heighten regional rivalries and create new ones, though at the expense of old rivalries.\u00a0 And it would play havoc with American League and National League records.\u00a0 For other criticisms of the plan, as well as other details (including a map of what teams would likely belong in which division) go here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What do you think about this?\u00a0 Good for the game, or another shameless attack on tradition?<\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred has put forward a radical proposal to completely realign Major League Baseball, getting rid of the American and the National Leagues in favor of four regional divisions of four teams each. What do you think about that?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":59751,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,43],"tags":[16985],"class_list":["post-84998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-baseball","category-sports","tag-baseball-realignment-proposal"],"yoast_head":"\nDISCUSS: Completely Realigning Baseball<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred has put forward a radical proposal to completely realign Major League Baseball, getting rid of the American and the National Leagues in favor of four regional divisions of four teams each. 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