How to Fix Baseball: A Radical Solution to an Ongoing Dilemma

The San Francisco Giants and Oakland A's are having a slap fight over San Jose that in the long run only promises to hurt the Giants (and Sharks) and wont propel the A's into a finical power or really even move them anywhere near the top half of teams. San Jose is a desperate hail mary by the A's that will in the end only be a money grab for the owners and hurt the Giants ability to continually bring elite baseball to Northern California. The Bay Area isn't big enough for the amount of teams that currently call it home (Giants, A's, 49ers, Raiders, Warriors, Sharks) and needs to reduce by probably two to give the others a fighting chance at being elite, the 49ers move to Santa Clara helps and so would a move by the Raiders to LA but because I cant see that happening let me propose a different much more dramatic move:

Send the A's back to the East Coast, specifically New Jersey.

AND

Move the Rays from Tampa Bay to Alabama

Reason 1: Money in the North East
In less than a few weeks the New Jersey Nets will move to Brooklyn, this will reduce the number of teams in New Jersey to one, theDevils, and open the ability of New Jersey adding another team. As crowded as the area would become for the baseball season with the Yankees, Mets, and Phillies already in there, people in New Jersey would flock to a team the has NJ on their hats after a while if they win. Adding the A's to the area would also force the powers in the North East to compete more for the available money and the teams would probably cut spending helping the rest of baseball go against the Goliaths.

Reason 2: Money on the West Coast
The Giants and Dodgers have had a strange relationship for a while because of money. The Giants have always had their cash flow cut into by the A's and for a while the Dodgers were able to take advantage by spending more than the black and orange, leading to World Series wins. For the past couple of years the Dodgers have been a mess and the Giants actually spent their cash and they in turn also won a World Series. ESPN says the Yankees and Red Sox have the best rivalry in sports (because both teams are able to spend so much); so just imagine for a second if the Giants had the entire Bay Area financial power to themselves. The new Dodgers owners have decided to take back the LA market from the Angels by spending like there is no tomorrow. With two bay area teams I doubt the Giants can keep up.

Reason 3: Saving the Rays
The Tampa Bay Rays cant compete for long run in the AL East and against the (state aided)Miami Marlins. As I will explain below the best chance for the Rays is to take a huge gamble and move to an area that isn't traditional and hope they can pull off the same miracle as the OKC Thunder. If they can win early and are the only professional team around they just might have a fighting chance.
Reason 4: New Divisions/ Rivals/ Playoffs
This part of my argument is the most extreme, but the MLB wants to increase its playoff system and the only way I can think to make it work in the long run is new divisions, uniform rules (no DH of course) and a lot of teams jumping. So in my new baseball world with the New Jersey A's and Alabama Rays; here are my new divisions:

NL West:
San Francisco Giants
Los Angels Dodgers
San Diego Padres
Anaheim Angels
Arizona Diamondbacks

(The new NL West could also be called the California division; by adding all the Golden State teams under one roof every year would be a battle for state bragging rights, and in the years the Diamondbacks are the front runners its Cal vs Zona)

NL Central:
St. Louis Cardinals
Chicago Cubs
Chicago White Sox
Cincinnati Reds
Cleveland Indians

(In the new NL Central the biggest debate I had was if I wanted to add the the Indians or Royals but in the end I figured letting the Tribe and Reds battle for Ohio and keeping the rivalry with the White Sox alive, outweighed the Red Birds/ Royals battle of Missouri)

NL East:
Philadelphia Phillies
New York Mets
Toronto Blue Jays
Pittsburgh Pirates
Washington Nationals

(The NL East was one of the hardest divisions for me to keep balanced and I truly apologize to the Pirates who it seems will keep getting kicked around. This set up however does get the interstate rivalry between the Phillies and Pirates and also has NY vs DC still locked in)

AL North:
Seattle Mariners
Colorado Rockies
Minnesota Twins
Milwaukee Brewers
Kansas City Royals

(The AL blue collar division will always be at a financial disadvantage with the other groups, however amongst themselves there is no clear superior team and the midwest battles between Colorado, Kansas City, Milwaukee, and Minnesota will be fun. Also like in the NL West those four fan bases can get together and root against liberal Seattle whenever the Mariners field the best squad)

AL South:
Atlanta Braves
Miami Marlins
Alabama Rays
Texas Rangers
Houston Astros

(The five southern teams form a lot hostility in this set up which might finally breathe some life into southern major league baseball. It has the Texas rivalry, a new Alabama versus Georgia showdown and the Miami Marlins taking on the traditional south)

AL East:
New York Yankees
Boston Red Sox
New Jersey Athletics
Detroit Tigers
Baltimore Orioles

(Of all the new divisions I think the history of the new AL East is one of my more proud alignments. The old Yankees/Tigers rivalry is reborn, the A's are back near their original home and it lets north easterners focus only on themselves which means the rest of us don't have too)

With so many teams switching leagues an expanded playoffs and year long interleague play seem reasonable, if only to keep up old hostilities. Well thats my plan to fix major league baseball, thank you for reading.

Posted in: Los Angeles Dodgers,MLB,Oakland Athletics,San Francisco Giants