Welcome back, sportz freaks to another edition of Z Money's Sportz Talk. I've been feeling particularly overwhelmed with an abundance of sportz information with which I could blog about this week. The other day, my friend and I were discussing the possibility of Major League Baseball reshaping the way all of its divisions are set up. This, of course was brought up due to the rumors that have been going around that these changes might take place as soon as the 2011 season. The idea they are pitching is to eliminate National and American leagues, and to restructure the league so that it is more similar to the NHL and NBA, in that it will have Eastern and Western conferences. While my friend and I aren't too keen on the idea of baseball changing a system that has worked for a number of years, we thought it'd still be fun to try and map out just how the MLB would split the map into Eastern and Western clubs. What I'd like to do now is share with you which teams would go where, and to offer a brief explanation as to why.
West
The Whole California Bunch
This, of course, would include the Dodgers, the Angels, the Padres, the A's and the Giants. Pretty easy to figure out that all teams from California would be considered "west".
The Rest of the West
Any teams remaining from the current AL and NL western divisions would be included in this group. That would include the Colorado Rockies, the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Texas Rangers, and the Seattle Mariners. I think that we can also agree that Colorado, Arizona, Texas, and Seattle are all far enough West that they can be grouped in with the aforementioned California ballclubs.
Houston Astros
I'm not into the whole idea of splitting Texas every which way, such as in football where the Cowboys are magically a part of the NFC East (or worse yet, back when the Cardinals were in that division as well) For that reason, I think the Astros should join their Texas counterparts in the West.
Minnesota, St. Louis and Kansas City
Taking a gander at a map of the U.S. http://www.kidney.org/about/images/usMap550px.gif you can sort of see where the East-West split happens, with states like Minnesota and Missouri falling right in the middle. However, they are the two remaining states that are farthest west, therefore I believe the Twins Royals and Cards should all be placed in the West.
The Windy City
Again, this is tough because looking at the map, Illiois is where it really begins to lean East. However, I felt that teams from the same state should share the same conference. Since we needed 2 more teams to fill the Western half, we figured why not go with the Cubs and White Sox? The only other team you could feasibly place there that lies directly in the middle would be Milwaukee. However, for the reason that we need KC and Saint Louis together, as well as the Chicago clubs, that leaves no room for the Brew Crew in the western half of the League.
East
All 10 Eastern Division Teams
The Yanks, Mets, Phils, Red Sox, Blue Jays, Nats, Marlins, O's, Braves, and Rays are all in the AL and NL east right now, and deservedly so. In fact, the team furthest west out of all of those is Atlanta. Just as their west counterparts, they will remain in their respective half of the country.
The Ohio Players
Looking once again at the map, you'll see that Ohio is definitely far enough east to be grouped in with the others mentioned above, and as a result the Indians and Reds will tag along as members of the Eastern Conference.
Milwaukee Brewers
See "Windy City"
Detroit Tigers
Detroit is a universal city in sportz, as it has four major franchises, all of which fall under different divisional titles. In baseball, they're considered central. In hockey, they're west, but in basketball they're east. They're not any of those in football, as the Lions are classified as 'North'. We're not really sure why it's so all over the place when it comes to this city, but it's clear to me that Michigan is a state on the eastern half of the country, and should be treated as such. The Tigers join the Easterners.
Pittsburgh Pirates
Cards with the Royals, Yanks with the Mets, Chi Sox with the Cubbies, and Indians with the Reds. You'll notice a very nice pattern evolving in that if you play in the same state as another team, you should play in the same conference. Besides, Pittsburgh may be western PA, but it is by no means a western city. The Pirates join Philly in the east.
So there you have it, the MLB split between Eastern and Western conferences. Stay tuned in the next blog, however, as I kick it up a notch and try to predict just how a system like this would work, how many teams would make the playoffs, and which teams would benefit/suffer from this type of change.
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