The Solution to MLB Realignment

A protracted in-game discussion during ESPN’s broadcast of the Boston Red Sox and Philadelphia Phillies Wednesday night came off as a breeding ground for debate concerning MLB scheduling.

By night’s end, the ideas put forth in the booth and the studio—along with recent talks of a possible realignment to give each league 15 teams—had this author brainstorming a relatively common solution. Were it to be implemented, everyone ought to be happy except for the purists who still believe the American League and National League should remain wholly separate entities until the end of October.

Apparently that group would include ESPN color analyst and former Sox shortstop Nomar Garciaparra, whose first full major league season was ironically the inaugural year of interleague play.

Garciaparra displayed a rigidly anti-interleague sentiment Wednesday night, and even as colleagues Dave O’Brien and John Kruk pointed to the matchup at hand as a potential World Series preview, he only acknowledged that as a spoiler.

Garciaparra’s reasoning alleges that the intrigue of seeing the AL and NL champions clash for the Commissioner’s Trophy is somehow diminished if those same teams cross paths in the regular season.

But O’Brien and Kruk countered with a more reasonable point: Boston and Philadelphia constitute a pair of solid franchises and sports markets and therefore deserve a predetermined meeting during the regular season.

Kruk even suggested that—while he believes the MLB steps over the line with the number of AL-NL games—he would like to see a few specific matchups on an annual basis, Red Sox-Phillies included.

Kruk is onto something with the idea of emphasizing certain non-league rivalries, if that term is ever operative.

But if anyone wants to utter the term “overkill,” he must first take a look at what’s been done to the likes of the Red Sox-Yankees matchup, which tends to occur an absurd 18 times per season.

New Englanders and New Yorkers alike might cry blasphemy, but there can always be too much of a good thing. That’s why it’s so relieving that the days when you could divide 162 dates amongst only 13 adversaries instead of as many as 27 (which became 29 after Arizona and Tampa Bay arrived) are gone and forgotten.

Here are the simple steps Bud Selig and Co. should take going forward:

1. Shuffle the Arizona Diamondbacks into the AL West and transplant the Houston Astros to the NL West, thereby creating a perfectly even field of two leagues, each with three divisions containing five teams apiece.

2. Create a balanced scheduling format. Each team should play 14 games apiece against its four divisional rivals, six games against the 10 other opponents from their league, three against 14 of the other league’s constituents, and four against a select non-league foe.

If you do the math, that still adds up to 162 matches per season.

3. For each divisional season series, there should be one three-game and one four-game series in each team's ballpark. Not too much and not too little.

4. For interleague matches—with the exception of special “rivalries”—AL teams should visit seven different NL parks per year and vice versa, naturally alternating sites each season. This way, all fan bases would have the chance they deserve to see every major league team within a span of two years.

5. For interleague rivalries—such as Red Sox-Phillies, Yankees-Mets, and White Sox-Cubs—it should be an annual wraparound home-and-home series. That is, play in one venue on a Friday and Saturday, then shift the scene for the subsequent Sunday and Monday.

It’s high time that, with the exception of these geographic grudge matches, interleague play was accepted as second nature.