00:00Here comes, and this feels like a matter of time, expansion.
00:05There are 30 teams that could go to 32, and not just expansion, but realignment as a part of it.
00:12And just reading up on it, not just realignment like redoing the AL East, West, Central, NL East.
00:19No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
00:22Blowing up the American and National Leagues, period.
00:24In fact, what I was just reading was getting rid of American League, National League distinctions, period.
00:31Because the rules now are exactly the same, if I'm not mistaken.
00:34No, the rules are the same.
00:37Do they even have, Matt, still like an American League president and a National League president?
00:40Do they still have that?
00:41No, it's a good question.
00:42I don't think they do anymore.
00:43Okay, so it's kind of gone.
00:45I think that's gone, yeah.
00:46It's gone as it is.
00:47Everyone plays everybody as it is.
00:50So do away with the whole American League, National League thing.
00:54Go to Eastern Conference, Western Conference, and I don't know if you have three divisions within that.
01:02I don't think three divisions work.
01:04It'd be 16 and 16, so you can't do three, you know, equal divisions.
01:10But if you go like the other leagues, or like hockey anyway, two divisions in each conference, and that's what they do.
01:17And, you know, I don't know what would be the most likely expansion sites.
01:20I just saw Nashville and Salt Lake City.
01:22Then you go Eastern Conference, Western Conference, and totally new divisions, like for the Red Sox.
01:29Red Sox, Yankees, Mets, Toronto.
01:33What else did you hear, Maz?
01:34Philly.
01:35Philly.
01:37Your thoughts?
01:38I think the Red Sox will hate it.
01:40Why?
01:41Which is why I love it.
01:43Why would they hate it?
01:44So, let me tell you why.
01:47Right now, on my screen in front of me, I have the highest Major League payrolls by total cash spent.
01:55Here we go.
01:56Okay.
01:57The Mets, number one.
01:59The Yankees, number three.
02:00The Phillies, number four.
02:03Toronto, number five.
02:04Ah.
02:05The Red Sox are 12th.
02:07So, if you are in a division with the Mets, Yankees, Phillies, and Toronto, and you want to keep up, guess what you have to do?
02:16Spend.
02:17Boom.
02:18So, this is, and look, this is part of the reason baseball's doing it.
02:22They want to put all the heavy hitters together, and you're going to have to fight it out.
02:27And maybe you win a wild card, like I'm presuming that the general postseason structure may not change that much.
02:33But, if you're going to play the teams in your division a majority of the time, and you will, you're going to have to, the heavyweights fight with the heavyweights.
02:41That's what it is.
02:42And so, think of it as boxing.
02:44And I love that.
02:45But, to me, you want to get rid of some part of the payroll disparity in Major League Baseball, make them all fight it out and beat each other up.
02:54And make them compete against one another.
02:56Turn it into a heavyweight division.
02:58I like it.
02:58Yeah, I'm sure traditionalists hate this because they hate any kind of change in baseball, but I like the thought of it.
03:03And get the Rays and Orioles out of my life.
03:05If we can get that out of, you know, the AL East or wherever it's going to be named now, and it's, you know, you're fighting with the Yankees, Mets, maybe Phillies, like that would be kind of awesome.
03:13And, sure, this probably takes away from the draw for some people for the World Series because now it's just East versus West.
03:19You've eliminated the National League.
03:20But, I don't know.
03:21Overall, I think I like it.
03:22So, I like the American League, National League.
03:25I do.
03:27And I just, I have another cookie cutter.
03:30Eastern Conference, Atlantic, Eastern Conference, Southern, Western Conference, Pacific Division, Western Conference, whatever.
03:36You know, like, every league is the same.
03:39I don't know.
03:39It's too cookie cutter.
03:40I like American League, National League.
03:42I still miss the Wales Conference and the, you know what I mean?
03:46Campbell Conference and all this and the Norris Division and the Patrick.
03:49Like, I miss all that.
03:51It's just too generic and cookie cutter.
03:53And, I don't know.
03:58It'd be kind of cool to be in a division with the Phillies, I think.
04:00It would, actually.
04:02It'd be good for the Red Sox.
04:03It'd be bad for some divisions.
04:04Let me just tell you that.
04:05Or whatever the South would be, would be garbage.
04:07I was going to say, so what's the Southeast?
04:10Rays, Marlins, Braves.
04:13Nashville.
04:14Nashville.
04:16Texas.
04:18Houston.
04:18The, bleh, bleh, bleh, ugh.
04:23You know what I mean?
04:24Yeah.
04:24Who's watching that crap?
04:27Ooh, who's leading the Southeast?
04:30Like, I don't know.
04:31But don't you think baseball is now a regional sport anyway?
04:34Yes, it is.
04:35It is.
04:35It is.
04:36It is.
04:36It is.
04:37I also think of, you know, Brewers.
04:38It's like Milwaukee, White Sox, Cubs, Twins.
04:45They still get St. Louis.
04:47Cleveland.
04:47You know?
04:48Cleveland, the Reds, Detroit.
04:51I don't know.
04:51Where's Detroit?
04:52That's the, oh, that's, Detroit's always a tweener in every sport.
04:55Yeah, but Detroit's really great leagues, don't you think?
04:58Are they Midwest or East?
04:59They're on Eastern Time Zone.
05:00I know, but who gives a crap?
05:01Get them out.
05:02I don't want them.
05:02No, they suck.
05:05See you later.
05:06No, I want heavyweights.
05:08Detroit's always the, Detroit and hockey is, used to be Western Conference, or, you know,
05:12Wales or whatever, remember?
05:14Yes.
05:14Like they, and then they were the Norris.
05:16So Detroit's always sort of in between.
05:20I don't know.
05:22I don't know.
05:23I like it the way, I like American League.
05:24I still dislike that the NL got rid of the, I don't like the DH in the NL.
05:29I like the pitcher's inning.
05:30So I just, I just think baseball's going to have to find ways to reinvent itself now, like
05:35I do.
05:35They're going to have to change the, shuffle the deck every now and then and mix it up.
05:39Well, his idea, so what he's talking about, though, is capturing the biggest audience for
05:46the big games.
05:47And if he has the good example in the American League playoffs, if the first round is Boston
05:53Anaheim and the Sox are on the road, let's say they're on the road for a wild card series.
05:59What times are those starts?
06:019.30, 10.30, 10.30.
06:03Where if you regionalize and you play out of your division or, you know, just do it differently
06:07through the postseason, that first round matchup is East first, or certainly if it's Eastern
06:10Conference, Western Conference, right.
06:12You're going out of the Eastern Conference versus the Western Conference, but I, you
06:16know, I'm not a huge baseball traditionalist, but I do like America.
06:19I would prefer to say American League versus Eastern Conference.
06:24Like I do in every other sport, Eastern Conference.
06:28Like, I don't know.
06:29You, you're okay with that, man.
06:31I am.
06:31Yeah, I am.
06:32And look, I understand what you're saying.
06:34I just think, I think a lot of that stuff is dying, Mike, or it's gone.
06:38And what made it the National League doesn't exist anymore.
06:42Correct.
06:43That's the thing.
06:43It used to be the rules were different.
06:45Now they're not.
06:46It's the same rules.
06:47So you don't even need an American League and a National League now.
06:50And I'll tell you what, you can still call them that if you want, but who gives a rat's
06:54ass?
06:55Like, you know, seriously, I think it's all, a lot of that has been lost.
06:59It's already gone.
06:59There's interleague play.
07:01Like the whole thing has been kind of destroyed.
07:03And the Red Sox play everybody in the big leagues every season now anyway.
07:07They change the schedule.
07:08Well, I'm just saying, I'll say this.
07:10Your division, the Sox division, would be balls.
07:13Excellent.
07:14That's a good division.
07:15Oh, it's great.
07:16The Yankees?
07:17You imagine you get Red Sox fans and Philly fans in the same building?
07:21So Jim Bowden's proposed realignment with the two expansion teams.
07:25The East for him would be Red Sox, Mets, Yankees, Phillies.
07:28And so you don't even have the Blue Jays.
07:29He has the North with the Jays, Tigers, Guardians, and Reds.
07:33Good luck with that.
07:34So it's a four-team division?
07:35Yeah.
07:36So there's four divisions.
07:37Four?
07:38Four-team divisions?
07:39Yeah.
07:39East, North, Mid-Atlantic, and Southeast.
07:41Oh, who's leading the Mid-Atlantic?
07:43Orioles.
07:44Orioles, Charlotte, the expansion team.
07:46No, I'm just saying.
07:46Nationals.
07:46Pirates or Nationals.
07:48That's wretched.
07:48So hold on.
07:49So he's got four divisions.
07:51Are we the East or the North?
07:54The East.
07:55It'd be the Eastern Conference, the North division.
07:59We're the commander to the Army of the North.
08:01The North division is Red Sox, Yankees, Mets, Phillies.
08:04No, the East is what the Red Sox would be.
08:06Okay, whatever they call it.
08:07That's an awesome division.
08:08Yeah.
08:09What's the Brewers division?
08:11You would be in the Midwest in the Western Conference.
08:14It's your Brewers, the White Sox, Cubs, and Twins.
08:17Oh, that's not too bad if you get the Cubs in there.
08:20It's nice to be able to stick your nose.
08:22Like, Sox would be sticking their nose into Yankees, Mets.
08:25We'd be sticking our nose into Cubs, White Sox.
08:27I like all that.
08:28So wait a minute.
08:28Again, Brewers, Cubs.
08:31White Sox, Twins.
08:32Wow, talk about four franchises with sock histories.
08:38Not for long, my friend.
08:39Okay, let's see how it goes.
08:40You won't be able to say that for long.
08:42I said histories, not futures.
