Which sport has the largest disparity between its two conference/leagues?

[miami_fan]

Well the World Series is over and the American League has continued its dominance. 8 titles since 1995, better record in interleague play, 11 straight All Star games. By all accounts, the American League is considered to be vastly superior to National League. The same has been said in basketball and football. The Western Conference is considered to be vastly superior to the Eastern Conference in basketball (7 of the last 9 titles have come from the West). In football, the AFC is considered vastly superior to the NFC (8 of the last 10 SB winners are from the AFC). In all three sports, if you were to pick say the top 10 teams in the game, I am willing to bet that many would the top team in the NFC/Eastern Conference/National League would be ranked no higher than 5th on most people’s list.

With that as a backdrop, which sport has the largest disparity between the two conference/leagues?

I don’t know enough about hockey to know if there is that sort of disparity. If there is such a disparity in hockey, feel free to chime in

[Alan T]

I voted football. I don't actually think there is a huge gap in baseball fundamentally or any other way. Both the NL and AL have had championships this decade, and there are large market teams in both (just the large market NL teams are not spending their money as well as the large market AL teams)..

Unfortunatly I don't know much about basketball and can't say there, but in football, the AFC seems to have the top 2 (if not the top 3 or 4) teams in football, has won the majority of super bowls this decade and doesn't seem to have much competition from the nFC

[Warhammer]

I said baseball. In both Football and Basketball the sports are balanced and you have swings one way or another. In Baseball you do not have the balance between teams. Teams can spend as much as they wish. Additionally, since the leagues play by different rules, the teams play differently. In the AL, you need at least one extra great hitter to fill the DH role. Many aging sluggers move over to the AL where they can extend their career by moving to DH. In the World Series this amounts to an advantage for the AL because they have three games with their extra slugger in the game, whereas the NL teams tend not to have another high caliber hitter on their bench they can put in the DH role.

[Pumpy Tudors]

In baseball, even though the AL wins a lot of the World Series titles and All-Star Games of late, I'm not sure if that's indicative of their dominance as a whole. There's a difference, sure, but I think it's just because the AL is really strong at the top. It keeps the other AL teams down. Every NL team except Pittsburgh and Cincinnati has had two .500 or better seasons since 2000. In the AL, Baltimore, Kansas City, Texas, and Tampa Bay have two .500 or better seasons since 2000 combined. Maybe that's a result of the NL teams getting to beat up on each other most of the time, but comparing the leagues as a whole, I don't think there's a huge gap.

The NFL seems to have a big disparity, and I think it's clearer than it is in MLB. The best of the NFC lately hasn't been able to compete with the top third of the AFC. Still, this just doesn't compare to my vote.

I went with the NBA. The Eastern Conference seems to be improving, but over the past several years, it's been horrible. It's had a couple of strong teams (Miami and Detroit, specifically) that were going up against some really terrible competition. It's pretty sad that these Eastern teams had the privilege of beating up on each other, yet they were still sending teams to the playoffs with barely winning (or losing) records. For comparison: The last time an Eastern team made the playoffs with a losing record was last year when the Magic got in at 40-42. The last time a Western team got in with a losing record was back in 1997, when the league had a team in Vancouver, the Hornets were in Charlotte, the team in Washington was still called the Bullets, and the Hawks were a decent team.

It's been a long time.

[Neon_Chaos]

Basketball. No doubt.

[Young Drachma]

No question it's the NBA.

Baseball's problem is largely attributed to the absurdity of its divisional alignment and the fact that the season is probably 14-18 games too long. Also because so few teams get into the playoffs, the cream isn't able to rise to the top usually because of fluke upsets and such alike. Sometimes, it's okay. Other times, it leads to what we saw last night. The sport is less forgiving to its 'best' teams on paper.

The talk of the AL's dominance is overblown.

[miami_fan]

No question it's the NBA.

Baseball's problem is largely attributed to the absurdity of its divisional alignment and the fact that the season is probably 14-18 games too long. Also because so few teams get into the playoffs, the cream isn't able to rise to the top usually because of fluke upsets and such alike. Sometimes, it's okay. Other times, it leads to what we saw last night. The sport is less forgiving to its 'best' teams on paper.

The talk of the AL's dominance is overblown.

Is it really that overblown? I mean the numbers do bear out the AL's superiority at this point. I am not sure how the divisional alignment or the season length could affect the overall quality of the the teams in the league. Unless you mean switching teams from the AL to the NL and vice versa.

[Young Drachma]

Baseball has uneven divisions. Some divisions have 2 more teams than others. In an unbalanced schedule (more games inside your division than out), it's fundamentally unfair, because some teams pile up games against crappy teams in their uneven division (read: The Rockies) and others beat each other up and no one comes out on top (read: The NL East or the 6-TEAM NL CENTRAL)

Anytime a team can come in THIRD place in one division, with a record that would've been a FIRST place record in another division and NOT make the playoffs, something is fundamentally flawed with your system.

In a sport where only ONE team gets to go to the playoffs that isn't a division champion, this is a huge problem that there are TWO more teams in the National League than there are in the American League. It's absolute silliness.

The American League isn't more dominant. The Brewers, Cardinals, Mets, Braves or Dodgers and maybe even the Padres would've made a better World Series out of the Fall Classic than anything the Rockies could do. They came to a World War III armed with a bowknife and a icepick and the Red Sox came with the arsenal of the Israeli military.

It wasn't going to be anything close to a fair fight, when you're sending Josh Fogg to the mound and asking him to work miracles (though he was pretty good earlier on...it was bound to unravel eventually. and he's just an example, when your middle of the order can't get it together either.)

The DH is a huge asset for the AL, sure.

But when the World Series split between the leagues is even over the past six years -- and the Cardinals last year weren't a fluke. Injuries cost them at least a dozen games -- and when a bunch of 10-year olds from Florida can march into Yankee Stadium and claim a title less than 5 years ago, we're far from a place where we can just assume the AL will win it all.

After all, would anyone think this had Cleveland not choked on a 3-1 lead and ended up playing the Rockies? That team matched up against the Rockies way better for Colorado and might have resulted in the storybook ending going exactly as it should've, with the Rockies hoisting the prize.

If people think the DH makes the AL that much better, than it's time for the NL to adopt it and be done with it. I don't think anyone but a few purists who cry about everything and are the worst thing for progress in the sport will complain about that.

[lordscarlet]

If people think the DH makes the AL that much better, than it's time for the NL to adopt it and be done with it. I don't think anyone but a few purists who cry about everything and are the worst thing for progress in the sport will complain about that.

As a baseball fan I prefer watching games without a DH.

[Young Drachma]

As a baseball fan I prefer watching games without a DH.

I think it's commonly accepted that there is no way the MLBPA will ever allow the DH to go away. So it's far more likely that the NL will adopt the DH before the AL will get rid of it and so, I usually think from that paradigm. But maybe MLB will just keep the status quo in the same way Japan does and won't even change it.

If baseball were to get rid of the DH tomorrow, I'd learn to live without it. I think it would even the playing field -- on the field -- better than a lot of other moves that have been considered.

[Pumpy Tudors]

what better

charlotte bobcats or charlotte 49ers

thanks

[sterlingice]

and when a bunch of 10-year olds from Florida can march into Yankee Stadium and claim a title less than 5 years ago

*snicker*

SI