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"... will give each league 15 teams. All six divisions will then be inhabited by five teams."
Houston had long been an NL market. The Astros expanded into the NL as the Houston Colt .45s, along with the Mets, in 1962 and are about to celebrate their 50th anniversary.
MLB will realign for the first time since the Brewers moved from the AL to the NL in 1998, ushering in the era of Interleague Play with those games primarily fit into the schedule during May and June. The new 15-15 format will necessitate playing an Interleague game virtually every day...
"I came to 15-15 a little slower than many of my colleagues," [Commissioner Bud] Selig said. "I worry about that. I love Interleague Play... The fans enjoy it, which is all I really care about...."
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39 comments:
" The fans enjoy it, which is all I really care about...."
Yeah, they also loved the homers that steroids produced, Bud. Now we have chemically induced records...moron.
Bud Selig lives to make the fans happy and I've got a bridge in Brooklyn to sellya.
"All six divisions will then be inhabited by five teams."
That's a remarkably awkward and confusing sentence.
Well that is it for me. Won't be going to another Astros game. Won't waste my money on American League non baseball. If a DH is used, then baseball is not being played.
Not a rivalry in any way
A used-car salesman like Selig ought to know better than to keep fixing something that ain't broken.
Or is it this his version of "new and improved"?
Either way, he sucks. The march toward turning baseball into the NBA and NHL continues.
Wow, this is the biggest news since Sonny James played the Astrodome in 1968!
Well, I'll defy the purists and say I like interleague play. Lets me enjoy the Brewers v. the Twins, and gets some of the better players to town.
Dump the DH though. That only one league has it makes it twice as dumb.
In addition to forcing the Astros into the pseudo-baseball world of designated hitters, this move increases the number of west coast games we'll play every year. Meaning many of us will only watch a few innings if that.
I'll still watch, and on occasion go to a game, but I won't be watching very many away games now.
The distinction of leagues is an increasingly absurd fiction. Why not just realign the whole damn thing and stop the silliness?
This Twins fan in Milwaukee loves interleague play. I get to see my team once a year.
Tosa Guy, There's a interstate called 94 that goes from Milwk to the Cities.
Selig is a fool and he eats like a pig. I've seen cameras showing him eating @ ballgames and he chews w/ his mouth open.
This will mean that everyday there will have to be at least one interleague game being played.
Would have made more sense to leave the Brewers in the AL to begin with. This lessens the prestige of The Silver Boot.
Exactly, AJLynch. That is precisely the reason I don't like the realignment, and I think it furthers the impending confrontation between the Leagues regarding use of the DH. Unfortunately, with the Yankees and Red Sox as proponents of the DH, I am pretty sure this will further persuade MLB to adopt it in both leagues. I don't think a lot of fans realize what is being sacrificed here.
Tosa Guy, There's a interstate called 94 that goes from Milwk to the Cities.
People will tell you to stop at the Norske Nook, too, on the way, but IMO the pies there are completely overrated. But the marketing is swell. It's the Wall Drug of western Wisconsin.
Yeah, but the really important news is that the Cubs hired a new manager who's finally going to take us to Promised Land... Dale Sveum.
Borrowed from the Brewers.
Baseball is a good sport to go girl watching at because its summer time and you can not watch the game for hours and not miss anything. At least soccer has every freakin' guy out there runnin' here and there. Baseball consists of 13 men watching the pitcher throw the ball to the catcher. Every now and then he'll throw the first baseman, and the catcher will throw to the secind baseman, for variety I assume.
Occasionally a batter will actually hit the ball and he gets to run about 40 feet to first. Even rarer, he get to run to second or third, the further he has to run determining his speed, because if he hits a home run he just trots.
The mind set of baseball can be summed up in the definition of a "perfect" game. No one gets a hit, no one gets to run, and no one is entertained.
Joe, I'm with you. Why have two leagues? It used to mean something to come from one or the other. Except for the DH, now it means nothing (and yoobee, I think you're on to something).
@Carnifex: I have rarely seen a more thorough and convincing demonstration of ignorance in an Althouse comment.
Congratulations.
What rivalry with the Rangers? The Astros rivalries were hurt with the previous "realignment" fiasco. The Astros' rivals are the Dodgers, Reds, Braves, and more recently, the Cards.
Houston's an NL town all the way. Perhaps Bud could move his precious precious Brewers back to the AL where they belong, and leave Houston the hell alone.
I *might* be less opposed to it if the player's union can quit protecting washed-up old farts as "designated hitters", but I fear that the NL will be forced to adopt them rather than getting rid of that abomination from the AL.
Although an American League guy and Yankees fan, I second all those who say that a) Houston is a National League town, and b) that the Brewers should be in the American League. This move is idiocy..
(One of my fondest memories was attending the 1965 July 4th weekend 3-game series the Astros had with the Dodgers in a brand-new Astrodome w. the original large screen. Dodgers pitched Drysdale, Kofax and Osteen and the young Astros unbelievably beat the 3 hottest pitchers in baseball on one staff and took the series 2-1 winning the Sun game in extra-innings! PS: Draft beer was 75cents/cup--the large milk-shake sized cups!)
I despise interleague play during the regular season, which is against God's plan. If this leads to more interleague play, I curse it.
On the other hand I loved the innovation making the All-Star game actually count for something (the winning team's League gets home-field advantage in the World Series). That was inspired.
All right-thinking fans regardless of league understand the DH is an outright abomination. And I say that as a fan of Papi.
Chris said:
"I despise interleague play during the regular season, which is against God's plan. If this leads to more interleague play, I curse it."
There's no possible choice but to play interleague games routinely, since each league would have an odd number of teams. Otherwise, one NL and one AL team would be idle per 3 or 4 game series.
I love how much shit Selig gets for practically raising the game from the dead after the cancelled 1994 World Series.
I love how much shit Selig gets for practically raising the game from the dead after the cancelled 1994 World Series.
Selig was (acting) commissioner when the strike occurred. I don't give the guy an iota of credit for turning a blind eye to steroids in order to revive what he played a big role in nearly killing.
He did manage to kill baseball in Montreal with his incompetent negotiations in '94.
The key to all of this is that the City and its fans that support the team is almost meaningless in real life...it is the TV that produces the drama and the money.
The local ball parks are sound stages: Some indoors and some outdoors. But never more than a stage for the TV show complete with its own excited Greek Chorus of fans.
EMDavis, You don't know shit. What "rasised" the game was juiced ballplayers hitting 70 homers. Selig played Sgt. Schultz, "I know nothing." Even Selig says his biggest regret was the cancelled WS.
Promised Land for Cubs = .500 season.
Dallas Green tried to change the mindset of the Cubs. I moved into the 2100 block of Waveland the day he took over as GM. So, I followed the Cubs more than previously. Maybe Epstein can change the mindset, he did w/ the Red Sox. But, the Cubs are bigger losers and many seem to wallow comfortably in their misery. The biggest fan base are yuppies who go to Wrigley, they don't go to a Cub game..they go to Wrigley..like lemmings.
@ndspinelli: In Boston people complain that the yuppie types (they call 'em "pink hats") only go to the ballpark when the team is contending.
Poor yuppies; they piss people off no matter what they do.
NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! What an abomination. I'm still railing against the designated hitter and the wild card.
Carnifex's analysis is on the money for those who know nothing about baseball.
I bet Carnifax and those who agree are soccer fans.
ChipS, My 2 siblings live in Boston and I go to Fenway on occassion. So..I've seen the pink hats in person. On tv the female pinkers are the ones w/ their hands folded and praying in tight games..posturing for the camera.
Carnifex is one of those people about whom I once said, "Total ignorance did not inhibit their expressing their worthless opinions."
No one else said it.
I think that the team formerly known as the Colt .45's should have kept that name.
I mean...how much more cool can a sports-team-name get?
"The biggest fan base are yuppies who go to Wrigley, they don't go to a Cub game..they go to Wrigley..like lemmings"
Very true now but in the late 70s and early 80s it was the exact opposite at least according to one manager:
"I'll tell you one fuckin' thing - I hope we get fuckin' hotter than shit just to stuff it up them three thousand fuckin' people that show up every fuckin' day. Because if they're the real Chicago fuckin' fans, they can kiss my fuckin' ass, right Downtown, and print it! They're really, really behind you around here. My fuckin' ass! What..what the fuck am I supposed to do? Go out there and get destroyed,and be quiet about it? For the fuckin' nickel/dime people that show up? The motherfuckers don't even work! That's why they're out at the fuckin' game! They ought to get a fuckin' job and find out what it's like to go out and earn a fuckin' living. Eighty-five percent of the fuckin' world is working. The other fifteen come out here. A fuckin' playground for the cocksuckers. Rip them motherfuckers! Rip those country cocksuckers, like the fuckin' players! We've got guys bustin' their fuckin' asses and those fuckin' people boo...and that's the Cubs? My fuckin' ass! They talk about the great fuckin' support that the players get around here, I haven't seen it this fuckin' year!"
Lee Elia
April 29th 1983
I mean...how much more cool can a sports-team-name get?
Hardly possible. Especially when they started being referred to as the 40's.
The worst mistake the KC Royals ever made was to turn down the chance to go NL back in 1998 -- they had first choice.
They would have been playing the Cards, the Cubs, and the Reds on a regular basis (natural rivalries all) and Milwaukee woulda been stuck with Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, and Minnesota.
What baseball has to fix is the Designated Hitter problem in the AL. Nobody in that league has a clue how to pinch hit and they have no idea what a double-switch is about.
Keep the DH if you must ... in which case both leagues bat TEN men, including the pitcher. It's the lack of requiring the pitcher to bat that makes AL ball sort of suck.
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