Can someone explain to me in a simple basic way why you can't have an odd number of teams and why there would be an interleague game every day.
It takes two teams to play a game, right? Well, if you have fifteen teams in the NL and fifteen in the junior circuit, you have the following on a given Friday night:<ul><li>Fourteen NL teams are playing seven games, but the fifteenth is the odd team out;</li><li>Fourteen AL teams are playing seven more games, but the fifteen is the odd team out as well;</li><li>It follows that the odd NL and AL teams will either play one another or have the night off.</li></ul>
See MSN's post above. Baseball is the only major sport where EVERY team plays on most days of the week: namely, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Monday and Thursday are always travel days for at least some teams.
Not just an extra day off for the team not matched up due to the odd number, but a whole series off, because the other 14 teams would be playing each other for 3 or 4 days. 3 or 4 days off in a row, except for the allstar break, never happens in baseball. So, the suggestion that you'd have the odd teams play each other in an interleague series to even it out. But then you've got interleague games going on in the heat of a pennant chase, down the stretch in September, and nobody wants that.
Also, IIRC, Arizona is the only team that can move. I think it was part of their expansion deal that MLB reserves the right to move them to the AL if necessary.
No, thank you. I would vomit. Hate the DH. Can't stand the thought of so many road games starting at 9.
I'd be even more entertained if they had a trapeze act in centerfield, but that's not baseball either. Besides, it's not the actual fact of a DH that makes the AL such bad baseball, it's what that leads to. Since good AL lineups have no holes, all hitters concerned about extending the game by any means possible. So there is no negative to the 7th or 8th hitter taking a walk with two outs and men on, and no reason to swing at mediocre pitches. Stolen bases, sac flies, and bunts lose most of their value. So fewer hitters come up trying to actually hit (and rather, just get on base), the game takes longer, and the score gets run up with very little action in the process.
and the games last for freaking ever. the consequences of changing pitchers is minimized. takes foreveeeeerrrrrrrrr....foorrrrrreeeeevvvvveeeeeerrrrrr
The junior circuit sucks and the DH is the devil. And *yes*, watching the pitcher come to the plate adds another element to the dynamics of the game--unless you're just another shallow chick that digs the long ball.
It would be more balanced as in the number of teams in each division. If they need more interleague games, that's fine. Some people get tired of seeing the same team every other day, and it would be something new for the fans. The only reason California teams are in the same division is because there are more than 2 California teams, so they obviously can't put just one in each league. Why do you think the 2 Chicago teams aren't in the same league? They try to split them up as much as possible.
No, it's not fine. Interleague games suck. Here's what's boring about the MLB schedule (because I'll agree some balance and change is needed). It's *not* the division alignment (although I'd prefer to be back in the West with those (@*#& Dodgers myself). It's this ridiculous, stupid, boring, belaboured unbalanced-schedule BS. We get six games with the Dodgers. SIX. SIX. And we get eighteen tension-filled contests with the Pirates and Brewers. Eighteen. If I see the Brewers or Cubs one more time this season, I'm going to freaking hurl. But, that's OK--I get to see each of them eighteen more times next season, too. Meanwhile, games that used to be interesting--the Dodgers, the Giants, the Pads, the ($#@( Mets, the Phillies, the (*&#(&$ Braves, only six times a year. The unbalanced schedule is the worst thing that has ever happened to MLB scheduling. It's boring as hell. The second worst thing that ever happened to MLB scheduling is interleague games.
What is so bad about interleague games? You get to see new teams, and you WOULDN'T have to play the Pirates & Brewers 18 times a year.
Please point me to the third California team in the AL. I am at a loss after Oakland and Anaheim. Assume the Astros and Brewers are fighting it out for the division title the last weekend of the season. The Astros have to play the Cardinals, while the Brewers get the Royals. Teams should be playing within their own league during the stretch run and in their division as much as possible. Season long interleague play would make that impossible.
I agree with all this, but these days, with some teams starting the season days below other teams, you could envision a scenario whereby there'd be enough teams playing at different parts in their series to make it work. Obviously, you need a serious computer algorithm to check it out, but it might be possible. Obviously, you'd have to stagger both the beginning of the season and the end of the season over a bunch of days (say 3 or 4). I can see how that would be a bad thing at the end of the season.
Please read carefully. Did I say there were 3 California teams in the AL? All I said was that MLB would like to keep the same-state teams separate as much as possible, which is why the White Sox are in the AL and the Cubs are in the NL, and the Yankees are in the AL and the Mets are in the NL. Since there are more than 2 California teams in all of MLB (5, if I counted correctly), it is impossible to split them up in the same way. As far as your hypothetical situation between the Astros & Brewers, you're absolutely correct. You wouldn't want interleague play then. I haven't thought of all the problems & technicalities of moving the Astros to the AL West because it is not going to happen. I simply remarked that it would be more balanced as far as the the number of teams in each division.
there was no mlb when the cubs joined the NL and the sox the AL genius. The dodgers and Giants were both from New York and the As came from Philly. They weren't placed anywhere. You don't know jack about baseball.
Weren't the Brewers in the AL Central before the 2000's? I remember (R.I.P.) Kirby Puckett wreaking havoc against the NL in the "world series". I hate the Designated Hitter rule. What kind of CRAP is that? No wonder AL pitchers who sign with National League teams can't bat worth crap.
Yes the Brewers used to be in the AL. They came over to the NL when they expanded to three divisions in each league. I think it was 1994.
Yea. That only happened cuase it was was Budd's team. I think that might be the only time a team has crossed over. Up until a few years ago, the leagues still had separate umpires but it seems all signs of the AL and NL being different organizations are gone.
