Saturday, August 9, 2014

Should Major League Baseball Expand to 32 teams?

Major League Baseball has not expanded since 1998 when Arizona joined the NL and Tampa Bay joined the AL.  The current alignment with 2 leagues with 3 divisions and 15 teams seems a little awkward.  Would it make sense to have 32 teams in MLB with 16 teams in each league divided into two divisions.  There would be no wild cards in any playoff, so any team in the playoff would have a good record.  Here are some candidates for expansion:

  • Charlotte, NC - the state already has basketball, football and hockey
  • Porltand OR - the metropolitan area has a population of 2.3 million which is more than Cleveland or Kansas City
  • San Antonio, TX - would create a good rivalry with Rangers and Astros
  • Montreal - the Expos were very popular for many years.  It was said that the baseball strike of 1994-95 diminished interest in baseball there.  Also the seats in Olympic Stadium were too far from the field. 
Would expansion dilute the level of play in the major leagues as 50 new positions would be open for players not now in the Major League.

Thoughts?

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