Recent interleague play has me wondering about the setup of Major League Baseball. Every team had a counterpart in the other league to play except for the Atlanta Braves and the Arizona Diamondbacks.
How do they determine in which league to put entirely new franchises? I know that the numbers are uneven because an even number of NL and AL teams would force daily interleague play. Since there are differences between the two leagues, the most obvious being the lack of DH in the NL, has any expansion team objected to where they were placed before? Do expansion team owners have any say as to where they are placed or does MLB just place teams to preserve the balance?
Wow, correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t this the only difference? I mean, there are differences in play that derive from this rule difference, but there’s nothing else, right?
I seem to recall that the Brewers weren’t given a choice when they were moved from the AL to the NL, but on the other hand, the Expos had to remain NL when they became the Nationals because the Orioles had a guarantee against any AL team being placed within a certain radius. So a new expansion team would be placed in a league based on internal business reasons in MLB within the constraints of agreements the league has with individual teams.
My WAG would be that any new expansion teams would be placed in the AL to give the Braves and Diamondbacks natural AL rivals during interleague play.
I think it is the only difference but, not being an expert, I did not feeling like opening the door to nitpicks about the NL being 25 years older. I am fairly certain that the only differences are derived from the rule difference but like I said, I am not positive about that one.
I’m pretty sure that MLB decides, which mean that the owners decide how best to soak anyone who wants to enter their amazingly lucrative little club.
But I don’t understand your comment about teams having counterparts in the other league. It’s not terribly surprising that both leagues want to have the widest presence and representation possible but there are several areas which have a team in one league and no close team in the other. Boston, San Diego, Seattle, Toronto. Are Minneapolis and Milwaukee supposed to be counterparts? If Phoenix then why not Denver on your list. If a team in Washington is a counterpart to one in Baltimore, then why did Baltimore fight it so hard? I don’t see this claim working.
1961: AL added Los Angeles (now California) and Washington (now Texas)
1962: NL added New York and Houston
1969: AL added Seattle Pilots (now Milwaukee) and Kansas City Royals; NL added Montreal (now Washington) and San Diego.
1977: AL added Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays.
1993: NL added Florida and Colorado.
At that point, both leagues had 14 teams. The NL wanted the same number of teams as the AL because they wanted the same number of players, which would more evenly distribute the best players (the AL could draft more players than the NL; over the years, the NL was losing superiority).
So the next expansion was for two more teams, Tampa Bay and Arizona. The problem was that it would have made things uneven. Also, the league with two expansion teams was going to do a little better in the first season, since everyone had to play both patsies. The solution was to put a team in each league, and then move Milwaukee to the NL to have an even number. The NL got the extra teams because they had fewer teams during 1977-1993.
The home team gets to set the dimensions of the park within reasonable constraints, right? Are those constraints actually different between the AL and NL, or is it just the-way-it-is that AL parks are a bit smaller?
Also - what are the strike zone differences? I’ve never heard this.
Seattle and San Diego are interleague rivals. That just means they play each other every year, whereas Seattle’s other interleague opponents rotates. In some cases (Yankees/Mets, White Sox/Cubs) it makes sense in terms of generating fan interest. In others, not so much.
Ah. I hate the interleague rules the way some people hate the DH, so I haven’t kept track of who plays whom when, except that it screws up every single thing that matters about having two leagues.
I seem to remember Jerry Colangelo, founding owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks, demanding that his new team be in the NL. Although I suspect the decision had already been made when he issued his “demand.”
As for the strike zone and park size differences, while they may have existed in the past, at this point I think they’re negligible. There used to be AL and NL umpires, but now there are MLB umpires that call both AL and NL games. And park sizes have been getting smaller in both leagues over the past two decades; I don’t think one league has out-paced the other in this respect.
If MLB expands again, it will be two more teams and they will go to the AL. I believe it will be a long time before the MLB expands again.
Expansion team owners have little say. In fact Tampa Bay begged not to be in the AL East. (For good reason). MLB had the right to move Arizona from the NL to the AL but the owner protested long and loud that the team was built for the AL and then the Brewers volunteered for the NL as the ownership (Selig family) always felt that Milwaukee was more of an NL Town.
BTW: The strike zone is no longer much different. The Umpires and league offices were unified and instructions were given to call the same strike zone. Questec has strongly affected the calling of the strike zone.
The strike zone and the size of the ballparks are no longer issues. The strike zone argument goes back to the days when the NL umpires wore huge chest protectors while the AL umpires ducked behind the catchers. Today its a non-issue.
The ball parks have changed. It used to be that the NL was a “turf” league but the AL was a “grass” league. That’s no longer a given.
The AL, NL distribution is a business decision on the part of MLB. Teams have been made to switch leagues to try to even things out. When it comes time for “natural rivals” why are the Tigers playing Cincinnatti? Answer: Because there’s no other team left.
There’s no point in trying to see anything more into this than the fact the MLB is trying to manipulate the situation to the advantage of MLB on the whole. It’s business.