After attending my first game at Fenway Park in nearly seven years, I made a point of stating it probably wouldn't be seven years before I would attend another game.
However, only hours later, MLB Commissioner made an appearance during ESPN Sunday Night Baseball's coverage of the New York Mets-Seattle Mariners game in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. While on the air, Manfred proposed realigning major league baseball on geography dividing between East and West. Although he did not explicitly state it, his proposal would effectively chloroform the American League and National League which have been in operation since 1901 and 1876, respectively.
Mind you, this realignment is predicated on expanding MLB from 30 to 32 teams - one team in the East and one in the West. The most likely Eastern expansion teams would be based in Nashville or somewhere in North Carolina (Charlotte or Raleigh-Durham). Alas, it would appear the reincarnation of the Montreal Expos is not in the cards. The most likely Western expansion teams would be based in Salt Lake City or in Portland, Oregon. Here is what a possible realignment would look like:
If there is no more American League or National League, then maybe there won't be a World Series?
After all, Manfred once described the World Series trophy as "a piece of metal."
During a team meeting at work today, a colleague asked me what I thought of Manfred's realignment proposal. After telling him not to get me started, I said that I wished we had a Baseball Commissioner who actually likes baseball.
Rob Manfred's legacy is the ghost runner, the universal DH and HR derby at the All-Star Game and he wants to do more.
Now it's true the line between the American League and National League has been diminishing for nearly 30 years through interleague play. The AL and NL used to be two separate universes which only met during the All-Star Game and the World Series. A matchup between Reggie Jackson and Joe Morgan, George Brett and Mike Schmidt, Roger Clemens and Dwight Gooden meant something.
This isn't to say that wonderful things don't happen in baseball. But baseball is no longer the national pastime as people like Rob Manfred have seen fit to diminish its place in American life because we're in too much of a damn hurry to care about our traditions that are worth preserving.
Baseball has changed and not for the better. Should there be no more AL and NL (and with it no World Series) then the sport ought to be called something else because it won't be baseball anymore.
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