Here’s a go at it:
New York (3)
Boston (2)
Chicago (2)
Los Angeles
Anaheim
Philadelphia
Washington
Baltimore
Miami
Toronto
Montreal
Detroit
Cleveland
Minneapolis
St. Louis
Pittsburgh
Cincinnatti
Houston
Dallas
San Antonio
San Francisco
San Diego
Denver
Seattle
Phoenix
Vancouver
So basically getting rid of Tampa Bay, Oakland, Kansas City, Milwaukee, and Atlanta from the current setup, in favor of a third NY team, a second Boston team, a team back in Montreal, and new teams in San Antonio and Vancouver. The big surprise is obviously Atlanta; they are having trouble getting attendance now with a team that has won every year in recent memory, the other sports teams in the city that don’t win have huge attendance issues (even more so than most places that are chronic losers)… I just have a hunch that if we start up from scratch and they lose the first year or two, we’re looking for places to move them. Boston is certainly smaller than the other double-team cities, but it was able to handle two in the past, and the demographics and baseball passion of the area would likely make it a great place to put two again. Divisions I suppose would look something like this:
AL:
East:
New York (Bronx)
Boston (Fenway)
Toronto
Baltimore
Miami
Central:
New York (Long Island) - I just don’t like having two NY in the same division, and there are 11 “east” teams anyways
Cleveland
Detroit
Minneapolis
Chicago (South Side)
West:
Anaheim
Dallas
Seattle
San Antonio
NL:
East:
New York (Queens)
Philadelphia
Washington
Montreal
Boston (Cambridge?)
Central:
St. Louis
Cincinnatti
Pittsburgh
Houston
Chicago (North Side)
West:
San Diego
San Francisco
Phoenix
Denver
Los Angeles
Vancouver
I don’t think Puerto Rico could handle a team in a full-sized stadium over the course of an entire season. I don’t think Cuba could handle a team where MLB prices applied, even once we ignore the other problems there. I don’t feel comfortable with Mexico City yet for an entire 81 game home schedule; if I were going to move into the southern Spanish-speaking areas, though, that’s probably where I’d start.
Last Five Out:
Milwaukee
Sacramento
Oakland
Las Vegas
New York (Brooklyn)
Oh, and I almost forgot - if you let me go with 28 instead of 30, we can drop Vancouver and San Antonio, move one team to the AL, and go old school with a 7-team East and West in each league - I’ll even let you keep the next two best records as wild cards if you have some fetish about playing the World Series into November.