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Forum >> Baseball >> More moves like the Astros move, please!  

Post ID	Date & Time	Game Date	Function
#2998	04/05/2013 9:25:17 am		Ignore
Mig2012 Joined: 09/26/2012 Posts: 547 Inactive	I like the Astros move from the NL Central to the AL West. Now every division has 5 teams in it and that makes it easier for interleague play. The other good thing about this move is that this could be the beginning of a great local rivalry in Texas between the Astros and the Rangers and that is a very positive thing for baseball too. I think local rivalries in sports always spices things up, but, for historical and commercial reasons, baseball doesn’t have much of that. Even today, there are teams playing in the same city that would never play against each other in a whole season if it wasn’t for interleague play. It would be nice if MLB looked at the Astros move example and made a few more moves between leagues. For example, why not switch the Rays with the Mets? You would get a NY rivalry and a Florida rivalry. How about a switch between the Giants and the Angels? You would get new rivalries in both San Francisco and LA. How about a double switch in the central divisions, the Cubs and Brewers for Indians and Royals? You would get a new Chicago rivalry and all teams around Lake Michigan in the same division. On the other division you wouldn’t get any city rivalry, but, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati are all close by to each other, St. Louis is not far from Cincinnati and Kansas is not far from St. Louis. Obviously, with these moves some other rivalries would be broken, like the Dodgers v. Giants, for example, but with interleague play they could still play against each other, and since matches between the two would be much less frequent, people would look forward to these matches much more, not to mention that this move would make it possible for a World Series between these 2 historical rivals to happen again. The pros of these moves far outweigh the cons. You would get a bunch of new local rivalries, teams would save a lot of money on travelling expenses and players would have more time to spend with their families, which is nice too. Fans win, teams win and players win. It’s a win-win-win situation as far as I’m concerned. Here’s how the MLB would look like after all the moves done: AL - East Boston Red Sox Baltimore Orioles NY Mets NY Yankees Toronto Blue Jays AL – Central Chicago Cubs Chicago White Sox Detroit Tigers Milwaukee Brewers Minnesota Twins AL – West Houston Astros Oakland Athletics San Francisco Giants Seattle Mariners Texas Rangers NL – East Atlanta Braves Miami Marlins Philadelphia Phillies Tampa Bay Rays Washington Nationals NL – Central Cincinnati Reds Cleveland Indians Kansas City Royals Pittsburgh Pirates St. Louis Cardinals   NL – West Arizona Diamondbacks Colorado Rockies LA Angels LA Dodgers San Diego Padres Anyone else likes this? (Yes/No)
#3001	04/05/2013 11:11:10 am
admin Joined: 01/27/2010 Posts: 5024 Administrator	I like the Astros move from the NL Central to the AL West. Now every division has 5 teams in it and that makes it easier for interleague play. The other good thing about this move is that this could be the beginning of a great local rivalry in Texas between the Astros and the Rangers and that is a very positive thing for baseball too. Yeah...I think that's a good move having Houston and the Rangers in the same division. Maybe we'll see UT vs. A&T again one day. Steve
#3855	07/04/2013 7:46:59 am		Ignore
ianheath653 Joined: 07/18/2012 Posts: 35 Inactive	The historical roots are probably a big reason why it doesn't happen that often. The Astros and Brewers could pull off the switch because their roots in one league, with the attached rivalries, don't go as far back as others. It'd be much harder to get people to accept the Mets switching, for example, because even though they're just as old as the Astros, they're the NL's successor organization to the Giants and Dodgers, so they encompass rivalries and traditions that go back about 130 years.
#3862	07/04/2013 5:16:17 pm		Ignore
Mig2012 Joined: 09/26/2012 Posts: 547 Inactive	Speaking of which, what was the Giants & Dodgers move to the West compared to this Mets move? THAT was brutal to the fans and in the end it turned out to be a great move for baseball as it opened the West to Major League Baseball. I'm not even suggesting teams move to other cities, so I don't see what would be the problem here. The NL and AL are not commercial rivals anymore. There is only one baseball league now with a DH rule in the middle, and with all that interleague play going on right now I really don't see any problem in a few division moves. In a few years I can see MLB adopting a similar structure to NBA with 8 4-team divisions, losing the AL & NL labels forever and turning the All-Star game into East vs. West. Obviously, to do that they will have to add 2 new teams and I'll bet those will be a 3rd team in NY and a 3rd team in LA.
#3896	07/06/2013 8:55:48 pm
admin Joined: 01/27/2010 Posts: 5024 Administrator	How about a switch between the Giants and the Angels? You would get new rivalries in both San Francisco and LA. Yeah, the Giants-Dodgers rivalry has a lot of tradition going back to NY-Brooklyn days. I doubt that either of those clubs want to drop that rivalry to add the Angels or A's to their division. I'm sure the Angels would love to be in the same division with the Dodgers...but I doubt that ever happens. Steve
#3949	07/10/2013 8:06:02 am		Ignore
Mig2012 Joined: 09/26/2012 Posts: 547 Inactive	The irony here is that traditional rivalry exists today because both teams, Giants and Dodgers, were in NY, not because they moved to the West to separate cities. Usually the greatest rivalries are between teams of the same city/state/county/region. That’s why I don’t think it makes sense to have teams from the same city in separate divisions. It made sense when the AL and NL were commercials rivals, but at this point in time it’s something that it’s not even financially sound. If they move, it’s going to be strange at first for the Giants and the Dodgers to be in separate divisions, but very soon the new LA and SF rivalries would be better. In fact, at the moment, and although they are in separate divisions, the rivalry between the Giants and the A’s seem to have started already over the A’s moving to San Jose, and the Giants trying to block that move.
#3961	07/10/2013 2:44:07 pm
admin Joined: 01/27/2010 Posts: 5024 Administrator	I think the San Francisco/Bay Area vs Los Angeles rivalry would probably still have made the Giants/Dodgers a big rivalry. But intra-city rivalries can be very passionate. Steve
#3977	07/11/2013 6:16:28 am		Ignore
Mig2012 Joined: 09/26/2012 Posts: 547 Inactive	Yeah, there were a few years where the Giants and the Dodgers were the only 2 teams in the West coast, until the Angels came in in '61.

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