On Sunday night, the Seattle Mariners and the New York Mets squared off in Williamsport, Pennsylvania in front of a crowd full of Little League baseball players
Dubbed the Little League Classic, this game corresponds with the annual Little League World Series taking place this month. The Mets bested the Mariners by a score of 7-3. That wasn’t the big news emanating from the event, however.
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Commissioner Rob Manfred was in attendance for the game. Going live on the game’s broadcast, Manfred revealed some interesting nuggets of information. One in particular involved expansion and possible realignment from a geographical standpoint.
“I think this provides us with an opportunity to geographically realign,” Manfred said on the broadcast. “I think we can save a lot of wear and tear on our players in terms of travel, and I think our postseason format would be even more appealing for entities like ESPN.”
Manfred went on to speak about the possibility where game times would connect to where teams were located. For instance, a 7 p.m. ET contest would feature two teams from the Eastern Time Zone. Additionally, for games that start at 10 p.m. ET, teams in this range would hail from the West Coast where that region would be able to enjoy games in a post-work setting.
Now, there’s also talk of expansion. Two teams could be added sooner than later — with the likes of Portland, Charlotte, and Nashville being rumored locations.
If the league were to get to 32 teams, could there be a situation where we’d see an Eastern and Western league, with two eight-team groups in each? It essentially would mimic the NBA model in a sense.
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Assuming this were to come to fruition, there’s a world in which the Dodgers would be going up against a grouping featuring an expansion Portland ballclub, the Seattle Mariners, the San Francisco Giants, the San Diego Padres, the Los Angeles Angels, the Las Vegas Athletics, and the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The second ‘Western’ group could feature the likes of the Texas Rangers, the Houston Astros, the Colorado Rockies, the Kansas City Royals, the St. Louis Cardinals, the Minnesota Twins, the Chicago Cubs, and the Chicago White Sox.
In the East, the Milwaukee Brewers may find themselves up against the Cincinnati Reds, the Detroit Tigers, the Cleveland Guardians, the Toronto Blue Jays, the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Atlanta Braves, and potentially a Nashville expansion squad.
Lastly, a final grouping would feature some considerable firepower — with the New York Yankees, New York Mets, Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Phillies, Miami Marlins, Tampa Bay Rays, Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals all together.
While none of this is set in stone, some of these possible rivalries do have the chance to be very marketable and attractive for fans of baseball.
Photo Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images
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4 Responses
I know Baseball is an entertainment business, which has made players and owner alike stupid crazy rich, but I wish Manfred would have a little respect for the game and it’s history. Leagues used to mean something, and I think the game was better for it. Notice how he says, “more appealing for entities like ESPN.” And completely ignores fans. It’s quite a telling remark. The time is coming when any baseball on TV will be pay per view, which MLB will embrace with dollar signs in their eyes. And when that happens I suspect attendance and viewership will collapse and hopefully MLB will start paying attention to the people who are really driving support for the game, not the ones signing the big checks.
Curious how just about everyone but 30 people regarded Selig as nothing but a stooge, and Manfred is doing his best to do even worse.
Yeas, ESPN and FOX have become the New York Yankees, New York Mets or Boston Red Sox game of the Week. When we were playing the Padres for the West lead, Fox was showing the Yankees vs the Cardinals…WHOOPIE. If you don’t live in LA like me, you relish the chance to see the Dodgers occasionally. Well, this year it almost hasn’t even been occasionally. It sucks and MLB Channel is too expensive and most cable companies won’t carry it,,, How did that work out for you Manfred? What an idiot…
Love your post. I think these modern brains have no common sense or respect for the game. Leave things alone for crying out loud. With the lame City Connect uniforns, play clocks and now expansion and realignment they are turning the MLB into the Little Leagues. Too many teams brings in lesser talent to spread around the league. Stop ruining a perfect game
I say leave the leagues alone. AL and NL. We don’t need to totally screw up that concept. If they wanted to have two divisions East West in each league and take the op 6 from each division into the playoffs with the winners playing to go the the World Series, that would be okay Or there could be the top 4 and two wild cards. The teams that don’t want to compete or keep playing on the cheap (Pittsburgh, Colorado, Los Angeles Angels and the like) will get left out every year and the teams that want to win will be rewarded. The revenue sharing to the losers needs to be cut in half, otherwise you get owners (like Arte Moreno and Dick & Charlie Monfort) who just put the money in their pocket and screw the fans like the Rockies and the ANGELS, although we have made the Rockies look like Rock Stars lately…BRUH!!!