I was curious the other day about why the the NL has 16 teams, and the AL has 14, giving an AL team a slightly better chance of making to the World Series. With three division in each league, it would make sense to have 15 teams in each league, 5 teams per division. Right?

Being a relatively new baseball fan, I didn't understand how the expansion of MLB took place over the past 40 years, so I did a little online research and found answers to most of my questions about expansion, except for:

* Why did Milwuakee change leagues in 1997?

* How/Why did the last two expansion teams join the same league, making it 16-14?

* Who makes or approves the decisions of which league an expansion team joins, and why didn't they try to make it even? Does the owner of a new expansion team have any say in the decision?

* When did they change from two divisions per league to three?

Thanks for any enlightenment you guys can offer!

The main reason for the 16-14 split is because if were 15-15, there would always have to be at least one interleague series going on.

As for the split into 3 divisions that's for money. An extra division plus a wild card means more playoff teams and playoff games, resulting in more money for MLB.

The last two expansion teams had to be put in separate leagues. With the NL Florida already having the Marlins, Tampa Bay was destined for the AL. Plus I think I remember reading that Jerry Colangelo was promised an NL franchise, therefore the DBacks in the NL.

Somebody had to change leagues so there would be an even number of teams. Milwaukee offered itself, probably due to the fact that they were historically an NL city as they were the former home of the Braves.

[ July 11, 2003, 12:51 PM: Message edited by: George_vikingfan ]

Thanks George! It makes more sense now. I should have been able to figure out the even numbers of teams thing. But you know, since they do have interleague play now, it probably wouldn't be too hard to make the schedule so that there is always an interleague series going on throughout the season, instead of having everyone play interleague at the same time. But then I guess you would have some teams playing interleague at the end of the season when you probably want to be testing yourself against your own league. Oh well. I guess I'll let them keep it the way it is. wink

Actually, g_vf, I think you're not quite right on the '97 expansion.

The D-Backs were never promised an NL team. Colangelo desperately wanted an NL team to develop rivalries with the three California teams (and, to a much lesser extent, Colorado), but there was no guarantee. In fact, if you remember, around the time of contraction, there was talk of shifting Arizona over the AL so that there would be two 14-team leagues in the event that Montreal and Minnesota were the contracted.

The AL desperately wanted Tampa Bay, which, in 1996-97 -- believe it or not -- was considered the most obvious of expansion markets. The AL wanted a piece of what it considered to be a lucrative Florida market (what a difference half a decade makes). Tampa/St. Pete was considered a natural fit with the more Midwestern-centered AL (the Gulf Coast is generally more midwestern, the Atlantic Coast more northeastern in personality). Also, the Yankees had a tie with Tampa being the base of Steinbrenner's operations.

Both teams in the Class of '98 could've gone to the AL. After all, only the AL expanded in the mid '70s, when Seattle and Toronto were awarded their franchises, and for about 15 years the AL operated with 14 teams, while the NL had 12.

What happened was Bud Selig saw an opportunity for the team he was allegedly disinterested in. M'waukee wanted back in the NL. Maybe it was because it saw itself as "historically" an NL because, for 13 years or so, the M'waukee Braves played in the NL. Of course, the M'waukee Brewers played in the AL for 28 years -- more than twice the time -- but somehow, despite a World Series appearance -- there was no historical tie with the AL.

In all probability, with the Selig family owning a financially moribund loser of a baseball team, Selig thought that, with Chicago only about 90 miles down the road, all those home games with the Cubs would be guaranteed sellouts (unlike the White Sox games). So he took advantage of the opportunity, moved his (ummm, I mean, his daughter's) Brewers over to the NL. They didn't have to move. Selig definitely wasn't taking one for the team. He sold out Brewer tradition for a couple of home games against the Cubs (and hasn't had a winning season yet as an NL franchise).

One other point I'd add for maxallen's benefit: I think that the reason they didn't go with two leagues of 15, with 5 teams per division, is because baseball has decided to keep inter-league play "special" by segregating it from the rest of the schedule. If some AL and NL teams were playing against each other every night, interleague play would stop generating headlines and hoopla, in the opinion of baseball's marketing department. I do think we're reaching that point now, with only the supposed "rivalry" weekends generating interest in the major media markets during interleague play season, as people begin to realize that interleague play means a whole lot more Pirates vs. Tigers or Orioles vs. Marlins than it does Yankees vs. Mets.

[ July 11, 2003, 08:44 PM: Message edited by: Charlie in the Trees ]