I Fixed the MLB

Each Halloween, my girlfriend and I make spaghetti. Does it make a lot of sense? No, but it’s our annual tradition. It seems that the baseball world has its own stupid, annual tradition: debating the DH.

It feels like each year around the All Star break the debate grows new legs, and it feels like there’s always “momentum” for the NL to adopt the DH. Then, a bunch of NL fans and self-proclaimed “baseball purists” ride in from Polo Grounds on their high horses and tell us about the sanctitude of National League baseball, and the debate is put to rest for another year.

I’m not here to discuss whether or not to bring the DH to the NL (they obviously should and you’re no fun if you think otherwise), I’m here to address a much bigger issue:

I think we should get rid of the American and National Leagues altogether.

Baseball purists, if your brains haven’t completely exploded yet, grab the scraps off your keyboard and hear me out.

Let’s remind ourselves that baseball once had a higher mound, no gloves, and a separate league for black players – so I don’t really want to hear about a reluctance to change the sacred game. Any chances to better a sport, particularly one that’s struggling to create appeal, should be open to any and all improvements.

My proposal for the MLB is simple: eliminate the American and National Leagues, merge the existing divisions, and then determine (via fight to the death) whether or not to allow the use of a DH across baseball. Each division would get 2 automatic playoff bids and the 4 teams with the best records outside of that bunch would be awarded Wild Card spots. Those wild card teams would play 1-game elimination matchups, and a playoff field of 8 would be set. Let’s take a look at what this would look like given the current MLB standings:

East:

Red Sox (1)

Yankees (2)

Central:

Cubs (5)

Brewers (6)

West:

Astros (3)

Mariners (4)

Wild Card:

Athletics (7)

Phillies (8)

Braves (9)

Dodgers (10)

Playoff Matchups

Red Sox vs. winner of Braves/Dodgers

Mariners vs. Cubs

Astros vs. Brewers

Yankees vs. winner of A’s/Phillies

What a novel concept – the 10 teams with the best records in the sport are all in the playoffs. And travel is no more of a concern than it already was, as teams are still playing most of their match-ups against divisional opponents that make geographical sense.

It just so happens that 9 teams to play in a division works out nicely, too. Each team could play their 9 division opponents 9 teams throughout the season, amounting to 81 games, or exactly half of the schedule. That leaves 81 games to be played against 20 teams – each team could play the rest of the league 4 times (80 games) and 1 team 5 times to get the full 162. Or, in a common sense move, they could just shorten the season to 161 games.

IT MAKES SO MUCH SENSE.

The odds of having a crappy division, like we currently do in the AL Central, are cut in half. Teams that are geographically near each other can play each other more often and create greater rivalries. Additionally, it fully embraces the success of interleague play and allows for a guaranteed series against each team on the schedule each year. Fans would know that at worst (depending on how they split the schedule), their favorite team would be visiting their local ballpark every other year.

I’m not sure who doesn’t win here. Fans get to see their team against the whole league each year, bad divisions are eliminated, more rivalries are created, and the possibility for things like a Red Sox/Yankees World Series come into existence. Manfred, make it happen.