A GRIP ON SPORTS • Baseball’s opening day is coming. The Yankees and the Red Sox – who else? – kick the season off Thursday morning. And once again we start to wonder what the heck has happened to baseball.
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• No sport has changed more in our lifetime than baseball. And not for the better. Don’t just take our word for it. In 1956, the list of major sports in the United States had just one professional sport on it. Baseball. No NBA. No NFL. But 65 years later, baseball isn’t close to those, or college football and basketball, in public interest. It keeps trying to catch up. And failing.
Why is that? A combination of factors, we’re sure. Some of it is the public’s tastes have changed. Quicker paced, faster events are all the rage. Fine. Baseball is not going to be able to compete in that arena. But baseball’s on-field product has changed as well. For some reason, the powers that be decided long ago to chip away at the game’s quirks. It’s a misguided attempt to inject symmetry into a game that, for decades, thrived on defying it.
Yes, the field is a diamond. But the stadiums were all different. Until, in the 1960s and ‘70s, everyone began building cookie cutter multi-purpose monstrosities. That era corresponds to the decline in interest, though that is probably more coincidence than correlation. And yet, even after the people in power woke up and began building unique facilities once again – the fans like them – they continued to take the personality out of the game. With the change concerning the designated hitter, baseball has completed it evolution.
Once baseball had two leagues that hated each other. Now, in reality, there is only one giant entity. Leagues are a scheduling construct these days as opposed to separate entities built on a foundation of animosity.
There was something special about the long-gone separation. The Dodgers and Yankees met in spring training and the World Series. That was it. The umpires, the baseballs, the rules. They were all different between the leagues. Diversity was a strength.
But it cost more. And money is everything. Even though, in the long term, such cost-cutting chipped away at the game’s popularity.
It’s not going back. If anything, baseball is moving toward even more conformity. In the next decade expect the traditional National and American league constructs to give up the ghost, leading to either four or eight geographic divisions. They may be labeled “National” or “American” but that will be just for convenience. And nostalgia. Any resemblance to the leagues from the ancient past will be coincidence.
Will that help bring back the game’s long-lost popularity? Nope. That’s a lost cause. But it will save travel costs.
So just how will baseball divide its teams? Regionally, with an eye on keeping as many rivalries together as possible. Two expansion teams will be added, bringing the total number to 32, which is easily divisible by four or eight. And there will be a 16-team postseason leading to a World Series that is a shell of its old self.
So how will it work? The playoffs are beyond us, but rest assured, whatever brings in the most media-driven dollars will prevail. As for the four eight-team divisions, we have some ideas.
The West: Seattle; San Francisco; Oakland (or Las Vegas); Los Angeles Dodgers; Los Angeles Angels; San Diego Padres; Arizona Diamondbacks; and Colorado Rockies.
The Midwest: Chicago Cubs; Chicago White Sox; Minnesota Twins; Cincinnati Reds; Cleveland Guardians; Detroit Tigers; Milwaukee Brewers; and Pittsburgh Pirates.
The South: St. Louis Cardinals; Kansas City Royals; Houston Astros; Texas Rangers; Miami Marlins; Tampa Bay Rays; Atlanta Braves; and Nashville Sounds (expansion).
The Northeast: Montreal Expos (expansion); Washington Nationals; New York Yankees; New York Mets; Boston Red Sox; Philadelphia Phillies; Toronto Blue Jays; and Baltimore Orioles.
There is one major flaw in this plan. (One?) St. Louis and the Cubs need to be in the same division. But that doesn’t seem possible. So we would have a designated non-division rival for every team.
That way, if each team played the others in their division 12 times and everyone else (except their rival) three, that would leave nine out-of-division rivalry games. There would still add up to 162 games.
Is it perfect? Nope. But then again, neither is baseball.
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WSU: Around the Pac-12 and college football, the battle at quarterback is the most fun position competition at Washington this spring. … Oregon State is putting in a huge video board as part of its Reser Stadium remodel. … It was pro day at Oregon and the Seahawks’ John Schneider was there. … A couple of key Utah players decided to return for one more season. … There is one Colorado running back that stayed in Boulder. … In basketball news, we watched most of Stanford’s NCAA semifinal loss to Connecticut. It was like watching a laborer building a brick wall. Yep, the Cardinal shot that poorly. There will be a new champion this year, either the Huskies or South Carolina. … Oregon has lost another player to the portal. … On the men’s side, Duke and North Carolina meet in one semifinal today, with Villanova and Kansas in the other. … Jon Wilner has a mailbag that defines Pac-12 blue bloods.
Gonzaga: The baseball team lost in 11 innings at home Friday. … Former assistant Tommy Lloyd is the Associated Press’ coach of the year.
EWU and Idaho: Around the Big Sky, spring football is all the rage. We can pass along stories from Weber State, Northern Colorado and Montana State.
Preps: Dave Nichols has a roundup of Friday’s action.
Indians: Spokane County has to make millions of dollars in improvements to Avista Stadium or baseball will pull the franchise. How does the county pay for it? It’s a conundrum cities and counties throughout the nation are facing. Colin Tiernan has a story on Spokane County’s latest ideas to finance the improvements.
Chiefs: Spokane’s fading playoff hopes got a slight boost last night as the Chiefs won in Kamloops 6-5.
Mariners: Larry Stone agrees with us. Julio Rodriguez has to be on the roster Thursday. … The bullpen took another hit yesterday with Ken Giles’ injury. … The young starters shined again in Friday’s loss.
Kraken: Visiting Las Vegas pinned a 5-2 loss on Seattle.
Sounders: The World Cup draw put the U.S. in the same group with England (a 1700s rival) and Iran (a 1970s rival). The last team is still to be determined. … Seattle returns to MLS play.
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• If we were czar of sports, we would wear one of those fur hats everywhere. After all, we’re the czar. And we would turn back the clock with baseball. Only as far back, though, to when the two leagues were actually different. The American League umpires would have to go back to those big balloon chest protectors when they called balls and strikes. And we would make them green, so Fox could promo their upcoming, soon-to-be-canceled shows on them between pitches. How cool would that be? Until later …
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