Commentary: Is this the end of the National League as we know it?

Joe Maddon chosen an adjective often utilized to a gallon of milk. Then once more, for all of the romance that surrounds the game, baseball is a shopper product too.

“When you eradicate Nationwide League guidelines, then all the things turns into homogenized,” the Angels supervisor stated.

With the adoption of the designated hitter in each leagues this 12 months, and with the enlargement of interleague play subsequent 12 months, Main League Baseball is giving their shoppers what the league believes they need.

The Nationwide League dates to 1876, the oldest surviving skilled sports activities league on this planet, in response to MLB historian John Thorn. The American League dates to 1901.

The time might quickly come to retire the leagues. They’ve outlived their usefulness.

For nearly a century, the 2 leagues had a distinguished and at occasions bitter rivalry. By no means did an NL staff play an AL staff, except for the World Collection.

Every league president decided his personal self-discipline. Every president’s autograph was stamped upon the baseballs utilized in his league. The umpires in every league wore totally different tools.

For generations, followers and gamers anxiously awaited the All-Star recreation, the results of which might be trumpeted because the willpower of the superior league. Stars performed all 9 innings, for the glory of their league.

That’s all gone now. Interleague play turns 25 years previous this season.

Bud Selig, the commissioner who shepherded interleague play onto the schedule, stated he had heard the idea proposed as early as 1948 and pushed for its adoption as an proprietor in 1973. The AL house owners supported the concept then, he stated, however the NL house owners killed it.

The Dodgers and Angels by no means have met within the World Collection. Does that imply they need to by no means meet in any respect?

“The Brewers and the Twins have established a extremely good rivalry,” Selig stated. “Why wouldn’t you make the most of it?”

Subsequent 12 months, it will get higher. Each staff will play each different staff within the majors, yearly, residence or away.

Should you stay in Denver, you get to see Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani each different 12 months. Should you stay in Kansas Metropolis, you get to see Mookie Betts and Fernando Tatis Jr. each different 12 months.

From a advertising and marketing standpoint, this can be a no-brainer. In case you are an NBA fan in Toronto, you possibly can see LeBron James yearly. Underneath the present interleague schedule, in case you are an MLB fan in Toronto, you may see Freddie Freeman as soon as each six years.

“The adoption of the common DH unlocked transferring to this mannequin,” stated Chris Marinak, MLB chief operations and technique officer.

If the NL had not adopted the DH, MLB wouldn’t have greater than doubled the variety of interleague video games, from 20 to 46. The AL groups constructed round a DH would have confronted too nice a aggressive drawback, by enjoying 14% of their schedule in NL ballparks, the place the DH wouldn’t have been used.

So, beginning subsequent 12 months: The Dodgers will play the Angels 4 occasions, twice in Los Angeles and twice in Anaheim. They’ll play each different AL staff 3 times, both at Dodger Stadium or on the street.

They’ll play each NL staff exterior the NL West six occasions, with one sequence at Dodger Stadium and the opposite sequence on the street. And, like the remainder of the NL West, they are going to play each staff of their division 14 occasions, as an alternative of 19.

“All I heard was I don’t have to look at the Diamondbacks 19 occasions,” tweeted Kevin Acee, who covers the San Diego Padres for the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Ha, and hallelujah. And higher nonetheless: The balanced schedule implies that a staff just like the Padres wouldn’t threat shedding a wild-card spot to the Philadelphia Phillies by one recreation as a result of the NL West had drawn the powerhouse AL East in interleague play in any given season, whereas the NL East had drawn the perennially rebuilding AL Central.

That is an enchancment, to make sure. However, if the precedence is to present the followers what they need, why ought to the Dodgers play the Angels fewer occasions than they play the Washington Nationals?

The Lakers don’t play the Clippers fewer occasions than they play the Washington Wizards.

The answer is geographical realignment, an idea Selig stated MLB house owners thought of three a long time in the past. If the adoption of the DH unlocked the balanced schedule, the elimination of the NL and AL would unlock geographical realignment.

“You want the leagues for construction,” Selig instructed me. “You want the leagues for the World Collection. You want them for sure issues, however not with the identical want you as soon as had.”

What MLB wants first — as Selig and his successor, Rob Manfred, have stated over the previous decade — is for the Oakland Athletics and Tampa Bay Rays to finish their searches for a brand new ballpark. Keep or go, however sufficient already.

Let’s say the A’s keep the place they’re, and so do the Rays. That will unlock enlargement, as Manfred has stated, and MLB might transfer to a 32-team league through which all types of realignment can be attainable.

And, sure, let’s do that geographically. Followers of the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers shouldn’t be caught watching 9 p.m. video games all summer time as a result of these groups play in a division in any other case populated with West Coast groups.

Two leagues, 4 divisions. In every league, the division champions get a bye, and the groups with the 4 next-best data play a wild-card sequence.

We’re transferring the Chicago White Sox into the NL and the New York Mets into the AL as a result of, properly, why not?

“Now that the foundations aren’t totally different … you possibly can’t name your self a Nationwide League metropolis,” Milwaukee Brewers supervisor Craig Counsell stated. “What does it imply? I believe it did imply one thing when the foundations have been totally different.”

Mentioned Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw: “Personally, I like Nationwide League and American League, however now that everyone has a DH … it doesn’t actually matter that a lot.”

The Astros have appeared within the World Collection as an NL staff and as an AL staff. Nobody hates them due to the league they represented.

Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts stated he wouldn’t object to geographical realignment. He likes the idea, he stated, partly as a result of the journey burdens for every staff would lighten.

“The sport shouldn’t be what it was 100 years in the past,” Roberts stated. “I’m resistant to vary, however I actually perceive it, and I’ve softened as I’ve gotten older.

“I do assume that followers will modify. I believe gamers will modify. On the finish of the day, it’s nonetheless the identical recreation. It’s groups competing towards one another.”

We might eliminate the standard league names and observe the NBA mannequin: Western Convention, Japanese Convention. Or we might stick to Nationwide League and American League, though these names can be purely ceremonial. And, by then, Maddon suspects nobody would combat the adjustments.

“All of the individuals like me will likely be gone, or won’t have sufficient affect to say something,” Maddon stated. “The group developing will embrace it as a result of they’ve been instructed to embrace it.”

Baseball strikes slowly. Interleague play has been with us for a quarter-century, however the idea had been floated for a half-century earlier than that. The A’s have been in search of a brand new ballpark for the whole lot of this millennium.

Geographical realignment is on the horizon, however Freeman laughed on the thought it might occur quickly. He simply signed a six-year contract with the Dodgers.

“I don’t see that occuring in my profession. I actually don’t,” he stated. “I’m going to be retired, I believe, when two extra groups are available in.”