Radical Realignment
Radical Realignment was a plan for realignment that would dissolve the traditional American League and National League structure, originally set forth by then acting Commissioner Bud Selig in 1997.
Bud Selig's 1997 proposal[edit]
Selig's plan would have realigned baseball's leagues and divisions by geography. The plan was part of the Expansion of 1998 process. With the addition of two new teams, the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Major League Baseball would now have thirty teams. As part of the expansion agreement signed with Diamondbacks owner Jerry Colangelo Arizona was guaranteed a spot in the National League. Meanwhile, American League owners wanted the added revenue of a new team in their own league as well, something that hadn't happened since the Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays joined the league in 1977. This would have caused both leagues to have 15 teams, resulting in year-round interleague play.
Selig's proposal called for baseball to be realigned into what amounted to an Eastern Conference, the AL, and Western Conference, the NL, similar to the NBA and NHL's alignments. The AL would consist of the fourteen Eastern Time Zone teams split into two divisions of seven, and the NL would consist of the sixteen Central/Mountain/Pacific Time Zone teams split into two divisions of eight.
Another plan under consideration called for the Diamondbacks to be placed in the AL and the Kansas City Royals move to the NL, but was nixed by Colangelo. The players union also had concerns about the large number of teams per division, and instead offered proposals to have the AL keep its 5-5-4 structure (or realign to 4-6-4) while the NL became 4 divisions of 4 teams.
Another problem with the plan was the two leagues' different rules regarding the designated hitter, and the owners having the right to refuse a change of leagues. As discussions went on the Mets, Cubs, Reds, Pirates, Giants, Braves and Padres' ownership groups all came out against realignment. Mariners DH Edgar Martinez said that he would retire if the M's moved to the National League.
With a schedule deadline looming for the 1998 season the owners finally reached an agreement, with only one team changing leagues and a second changing divisions. The Diamondbacks were given their spot, as promised, in the NL West. The Devil Rays joined the AL East and the Tigers switched from the AL East to AL Central. The Royals were given the first option of moving to the NL Central, which they declined, which allowed Selig's own Brewers to move the NL. Even after this realignment was finalized, the owners still continued to work on possible plans for future realignment, though none have come as close to happening as this one.
Tracy Ringolsby's 2017 proposal[edit]
A new proposal for a form of radical realignment emerged in 2017, in an article published on October 17th in Baseball America by respected journalist Tracy Ringolsby. He claimed that there was growing consensus among owners to fix some of the current scheduling problems caused by having two leagues with an odd number of teams by going through a new expansion by two teams, with Montréal, QC and Portland, OR being the two front-runners.
In Ringolsby's proposal, the 32 franchises would be geographically grouped into four eight-team divisions. Unlike in the 1997 proposal, there would be 17 teams in the three westernmost time zones, so one team from the Central Time Zone would be moved into an Eastern division.
The schedule would be shortened to 156 games (12 against each of the seven division opponents, and 3 against each of the 24 other teams), split into 52 three-game series with each team having one off day per week. The postseason would consist of the four division winners as well as eight wild cards, with the division winners receiving byes to the Division Series. A variant of this schedule could maintain the current 162-game structure by adding six division games per team, so that teams play 13 games against six division opponents and 12 games against the seventh.
There was no mention of whether the league monikers would be preserved, but the proposed plan also provided for the adoption of the designated hitter throughout Major League Baseball, removing the sole rules difference between the leagues.
One major impediment to modern-day realignment is that Commissioner Rob Manfred has mentioned previously that he wants to first resolve the outstanding ballpark issues dogging both the Tampa Bay Rays and Oakland Athletics before considering expansion. Because of the heavily geographic nature of Ringolsby's proposal, it appeared unlikely at best when it was floated, as long-term solutions remained to be found for the two teams.
Further Reading[edit]
- Ted Berg: "MLB's reported wild realignment and expansion plan: Is it cool?", "For the Win!", USA Today Sports, October 17, 2017. [1]
- Murray Chass: "Baseball's Radical Realignment Plan Losing Steam", the New York Times, August 22, 1997. [2]
- Tracy Ringolsby: "Expansion could trigger relaignment, longer postseason", Baseball America, October 16, 2017. [3]
- Linda Roberts: "Radical Realignment", The Baseball Diary, September 7, 1997. [4]
We're Social...for Statheads
Every Sports Reference Social Media Account
Site Last Updated:
Question, Comment, Feedback, or Correction?
Subscribe to our Free Email Newsletter
Subscribe to Stathead Baseball: Get your first month FREE
Your All-Access Ticket to the Baseball Reference Database
Do you have a sports website? Or write about sports? We have tools and resources that can help you use sports data. Find out more.