MLB Makeover Suggestion - 28 Teams, Four 7 Team Divisions

As some of you may know I am a NY Yankee fan. I was happy to see the Yankees take two out of three last night against the Red Sox. It was truly offensive series with Both teams racking up 29 runs each in the three game series. No pitchers duels here.

The scores were:

• Friday- Yankees 20, Boston 11
• Saturday- Boston 14, Yankees 1
• Sunday- Yankees 8, Boston 4

As much as I am excited about the Yankees 7.5 games series lead and the 18 or so games played between these two teams every year where it is always an event regardless of the score. Heck, you get more baseball for the money when these two teams play since it seems every game is about at least 4 hours long even if it doesn't go into extra innings.

With that said, isn't it time that another fairer scheduling alternative be considered such as the one below proposed by ESPN. One of their baseball gurus Buck Showalter proposes the following:

• 28 teams (2 team contraction).
• Four 7 team regional divisions.
• Each team plays each other 6 times (3 Home, 3 away) for 162 games.
• Two or four team wild cards for playoffs.
• Resolve DH issues (I say keep the DH).

Here are the benefits to such an approach:

• Fairness in scheduling in terms of travel for teams.
• Fans get to see every team every year.
• Team with best record gets home field advantage.
• Contraction of two teams means higher quality product for teams that remain.

Impact to local clubs. This proposal would result in the following "local region":

Babe Ruth Region

• Baltimore Orioles
• Boston Red Sox
• NY Mets
• NY Yankees
• Philadelphia Phillies
• Toronto Blue-Jays
• Washington Nationals

This would mean that we would not see 18 Yankees and Red Sox games everywhere but it would certainly allow local fans to see every team and result ina fairer schedule in my opinion.

What do you think about this proposal? Between this and Beth Mason's minor league ballpark proposal as part of a large scale NW redevelopment project, there is a lot of reasons for Hoboken's fans of America's National pastime to have baseball on the brain.

Here is a link to the video from ESPN:

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=4418385 ◦

MLB Makeover Suggestion - 28 Teams, Four 7 Team Divisions