A major league baseball team in New Jersey would never, ever work. Ever. (OOTP9)
 

INTRODUCTION

At the end of the 2005 season, Major League Baseball officials, pleased with the success of the Washington Nationals in their first season in Washington, D.C., decided to engage in discussions with an ownership group in Portland, Oregon at a possible expansion franchise in that city to start in 2009.

Commissioner Bud Selig was convinced that in order to keep up with the success of the National Football League and to deflect criticism from talk of performance enhancing drugs in the sport, that the league needed to expand to eight playoff teams in each league.

"Now is the time for this. Our fans will understand that baseball is unlike any other game in the world. We're the national pasttime. But in an era of competitiveness, fans want to know their team has a chance to compete. We need to find a way to level the playing field in a way that befits the sports proud history, doesn't cheapen it and yet, allows our fans to be excited about the game from Opening Day to the close of the World Series." - Commissioner's press conference during the 2005 All-Star Game.

After getting commitments from Oregon officials that they could get a stadium financed as early as 2010 in downtown Portland. The ownership group would include an investment group from San Francisco led by W.H. Larsen and John Hatfield, a prominent attorney from Boston.

The only problem? There was no second team to join them.

Major League officials scrambled into action to find an ownership group that had not just the deep pockets, but a market where they wanted to go.

Cities considered included San Antonio, Riverside (CA), Charlotte and finally, someone asked the question that the Commissioner had thought about for years, but wasn't sure if it was time... "What about Jersey, sir?"

Selig had grown up on baseball rivalries between the Yankees and Red Sox, Giants and Dodgers in New York City. He knew a third team in New York couldn't happen -- though he was almost willing to try it -- but after placing a league-owned baseball team 38 miles from Baltimore and after winning a lawsuit filed by Orioles owner Peter Angelos stating that television markets were league assets -- not team ones -- he knew that any move could likely stand up to legal scrutiny.


"You can't go claiming territory in three or four states away. You get your city and your traditional market. But trying to claim a team from nowhere infringes on your brand. It might make good business sense, but it fails the common sense test, that's for sure," said Sandy Alderson, who is the Commissioner's deputy.

They had a powerful ally on the owners committee in Oakland A's owner Lew Wolff who had long seen the day when a team would play again in the tri-state area. "I think it's a great thing for baseball if we could make that happen again."

Now, to find a suitable owner to make the dream happen.

It turned out, they didn't have to look far to make it happen.

Dot-com billionaire wants a baseball team in his home state
 

Bud Selig's wishes came true when a dot-com billionaire, a young man by the name of D.C. Mitchell came to his rescue.

Mitchell, 32, had been on record many times as saying how much he loved baseball. "I can barely stand it. There's no team in my home state. So I just root for the team in Toronto. But man, if there was a Jersey team, that'd be unreal."

He'd founded a startup that was later acquired by Google, invested money in several startups as a venture capitalist and struck it big. He still worked on projects, but was looking for something else to "get his hands into."

That's when he got a call from W.H. Larsen, who was actually a childhood friend of his.

"Hey D.C., man, I've got the deal of the century for you."

"What's that? Prostitutes?"

::laughs:: "No man, I told you about that. I'm a changed man. ::clears throat:: Anyway, Selig wants another owner."

"For what? Your ballclub? I love you man, but I can't move to Portland and watch rainy day baseball."

"No, man. Your team."

"Uh what? Those guys won't let me put a baseball team in Jersey. Would they?"

"Selig seems to think that after Angelos lost on the Nats, that he can do what he wants. He's fuckin' Ironman. He thinks it'd work and he wanted me to call and test you out and see if you were up for the fight."

"Fight? Shit. Fuck the Yankees. The Mets too. Do they know who I am?"

"No, probably not."

"Well, I'll make a few calls."

It was that day, that Major League Baseball headed to New Jersey for the first time since the Dodgers played a few games in Jersey City.

November 1, 2005

Major League Baseball announces that two new clubs will join the American League in 2009: Portland, Oregon and New Jersey. The owners voted on the proposal last week after the World Series and the final vote was 26-3. (Mets, Yankees and Phillies voted against the proposal. Orioles did not vote.)

"This is a huge day for New Jersey baseball," said New Jersey owner D.C. Mitchell, who became baseball's first black owner with the deal.

When asked whether he expected lawsuits from New York's teams, "Well I don't know. But whatever they decide to do, we'll deal with it then. We just look forward to beating them on the field in a few years, so they'd better enjoy the monopoly they've got for a little while longer."

Mitchell said that the team was investigating several locations for a potential stadium. With a potential lawsuit hanging over the team's head, it was rumored that he was considering putting the team closer to Southern New Jersey, on the Atlantic Coast rather than closer to New York City in places like Newark or Plainfield, both on the direct rail line towards the city.

"We're not trying to get closer to New York. There are more than enough people here [in New Jersey] to support this ballclub. Make no mistake."

The team will unveil its nickname at a press conference later this month, said Mitchell, who said he hopes to have a ballclub site picked out in the next 4-6 months. "It can be hard to make these sorts of things happen in New Jersey. But lawmakers are receptive to it, especially since we're looking to build the only privately financed stadium on the east coast and only the 2nd in baseball since Pac Bell Park. We're not trying to cost the taxpayers anything, because we want them as fans."

EBBETS FIELD TO BE INSPIRATION FOR NEW BALLPARK

While New Jersey's new team doesn't have a name yet and isn't sure where their new ballpark will be, the team's stadium has been designed in a model, that was displayed today at a reception held by the ballclub in Elizabeth, New Jersey -- a location not rumored to be considered by the team to host the team.

"We wanted to echo Ebbets Field, a real iconic place, while giving it modern touches as well," said D.C. Mitchell, the owner of the team. The privately financed ballpark would be ready for the 2009 season and would likely include some measure of real estate and other developments, but Mitchell said "the scale of those investments will really depend on where we end up."

He did, however, announce the candidate cities for the team.



The emphasis was on a location that 1) would offer up enough land or that could be acquired and that was 2) on or near a major rail line, to ease traffic heading into the towns on game day.

Each of those towns lack the major tax bases of other towns that could've been considered, but most were "too nice" to really work for a long-term solution.

South Plainfield, for its part, tried to woo the Brooklyn Dodgers back in 1957. The town, formerly known as New Brooklyn, sent a letter to Walter O'Malley asking him to consider the town, which at the time was largely open land. South Plainfield doesn't have rail access, but is connected to the Garden State Parkway, near the Turnpike and I-287.



Asbury Park is near the home of the state's 3rd largest newspaper (which is based in Neptune) the Asbury Park Press. The city is looking to redevelop its once prominent waterfront and boardwalk, but has been cahoots with casinos in order to do that, a big no-no for MLB. Despite that, the city has made a huge play to get a ballpark built there and the ownership group is considering them heavily.

Keansburg is a dark horse. A small, lakeside town of about 10,000, the town is home to a small amusement park and an otherwise undeveloped boardwalk and waterfront area. City officials, who see the project as part of a large redevelopment effort have pitched their location as the perfect spot for the team. No rail access here, either.

So we have two towns without the coveted rail access, each with unique benefits and each that poses unique challenges. But they're the options that the team has to deal with going forward.

"We knew this wouldn't be a open and shut case. We'd have to work for it and we're willing to do that to bring major league baseball to the Garden State," said Mitchell.

Here's a artists rendition of REI Field, the home of the Portland Beavers, the other expansion club joining the MLB fray with New Jersey in 2009. It will have 34,415 seats when it's finished, the smallest ballpark in the majors, though New Jersey is likely to be smaller, by design according to team officials.

MLB decided today that the 2009 season will realign the American League slightly, with Toronto moving to the AL Central -- a spot they were offered in 1994 to preserve the Tigers-Yankees rivalry, but declined -- and the New Jersey team will join the AL East and Portland to the west to form a rivalry with the Mariners.

PLAYOFF expansion will also happen that season, with the number of wild cards increasing in each league from 1 to 5, something that's leaving many baseball pursuits agog with fury. "They're desecrating the game!" Meanwhile, Commissioner Bud Selig has said that "this is just a reality of the way sports are played these days and we're confident that the best teams in baseball will be represented in our post-season, which we think is the best in the world."

NEW JERSEY WELCOMES THE PILOTS



New Jersey's baseball team will be called the New Jersey Pilots, after a name-the-team contest for the club yielded over 5,000 replies on the a web site created by the team.

"We had an amazing response and we love that our fans will be able to root for their very own Pilots, as part of our Flight Crew. We can't do it without them," said D.C. Mitchell, the team's owner.

Finalists included Sea Gulls, Goldfinches, Atlantics and Bears.

Pilot's sounds good to me.

Pilots pick Keansburg as the site for their new ballpark

KEANSBURG -- A town on the Raritan Bay, Keansburg has been a town that's never been home to much good news. But with the news that Major League Baseball is coming to town in 2009, city officials have rejoiced that their longshot bid at the new American League entry has been accepted.

"We thought, in the end, that they gave us the best chance to thrive and so, we're looking forward to working with the people of Keansburg to provide the best, most unique baseball experience in the majors," said Vance Mitchell, the general counsel of the New Jersey Pilots and brother of D.C. Mitchell, the team's owner.

The team's plan is a redevelopment project that calls for about $375 million of building projects along the Raritan Bay shoreline in the city of 11,000, which would undoubtedly become the smallest city to host a major league team, but as part of a Central Jersey region of 3.3 million people.

The team's stadium will be a $265 million stadium, paid for through $135 million of naming rights, sponsorships and other corporate agreements. The signature naming rights package is through George Weston Limited, a Canadian company which will place the name Entenmann's Field, the rest will be financed by D.C. Mitchell privately.



The stadium will be the smallest ballpark in the majors, with only 30,042 seats. The adjacent Ballpark Village will be connected by rail to the New Jersey Transit "Jersey Coast Line" which is now about 4 miles away from the site of the new ballpark, but lobbying by local lawmakers and others committed to the project agreed to add rail service to the community.

"We want to make it as fan-friendly as possible for people to attend games, but we also want to be mindful of the community and being good neighbors."

Other infrastructure improvements and local spending through state and local revenue sources will tally about $35 million, but private developers will acquire several acres of land surrounding the stadium to build a Ballpark Village which will contain condos, restaurants and other amenities aimed at creating a community within the community.

"This is aimed at attracting the next generation," said Keansburg mayor Doug Bekins.

The project is expected to create 600-800 temporary and permanent jobs, though independent operators who own the amusement park booths where the stadium will be built, are howling.

"We took care of this place when no one else wanted it. Now they want to kick us out? It's not right to hurt the little guy," said Kazmir Theocropolous, an immigrant businessman who says that his company is likely to do work in the new ballpark, though an amusement area that will be retained.

"It'll be the first ballpark in the country to have a Ferris Wheel and a roller coaster. We're offering fans a unique entertainment experience, while providing them major baseball on the Jersey Shore," said D.C. Mitchell about the project.

Keansburg is about 52 miles from Yankee Stadium and 54 miles from Shea Stadium in Queens and Mitchell said that he expects to meet with officials from both teams at MLB headquarters sometime in the next two weeks.

"The vote has already occurred and we believe the precedent has been set from the move of the Nationals to Baltimore, which was less than 35 miles away. We don't expect legal action, because the Commissioner has spoken, but we'll find some solution that works."

Construction on the new park will start sometime this summer.

PILOTS SIGN AGREEMENT BARRING THEM FROM OWNING A REGIONAL TELEVISION NETWORK

The Mets and Yankees ownership met with the Commissioner Bud Selig, to express their concern at a third team entering their market less than 60 miles away from their ballparks.

The Yankees own the YES network and the Mets will launch a channel in 2006, but worried that if the Pilots were allowed to create a regional sports network in New Jersey, that it would affect them negatively.

"We've invested in this market for many, many years and we believe their existence infringes on our rights," said Yankees owner George Steinbrenner.

But Commissioner Selig disagreed. "This has historically been a three-team baseball market and save for a few moves fifty or so years ago, it would have remained so. As a result, I don't really buy the argument that a third team with no pedigree, no players and no history can really surpass their brands. But we have an agree and it works for all of the parties involved."

The Pilots are rumored to be in talks with MSG Network to broadcast the team's games starting in 2009.

EXPANSION DRAFT

The hardest part of expansion draft strategy is deciding whether we want to be aggressive and contend early or if it's smarter to build a team and work our way into the hearts of our fans over time.

While it's going to be important to bring in guys who have "names" that fans can readily identify with and to paint a picture that "we are serious" it's also important to remember that we have to build for the long haul.

So we're trying to be deliberate in our moves.

Some of the players available in the expansion draft included big names like Derek Jeter (probably due to his contract) and Ken Griffey Jr.

I'm running this in 2009, using Cubbyfan latest roster set released early last week.

Here are the first nine rounds:

Rounds 10-19 and the rest is just meh.


We couldn't resist taking Jeter. We weren't supposed to, the salary wasn't on our radar and we'll have to trade him back to New York, as he doesn't want to play for us and the Yankees would rather him not go somewhere else.

But I think it was just a powerplay on their parts, as they probably wouldn't have objected to him going to Portland, but knew they'd never try to offer him a deal, as they're just not going to spend much right now and we're going to have to with 3 teams surrounding us.

A few trades were made after draft, that I'll chronicle when I'm done.

DECIDING TO BE COMPETITIVE

Here are our post-expansion draft deals.

The Jeter deal is a signature one. I don't really know why they left him exposed. In real life, we know that wouldn't happen. But alas, this ain't real life.



We took their dead weight in contracts, which frees them to start rebuilding and gives us a shot to see if those guys can be contributors out of the chute. Really, we thought the marketing power of Ichiro, even if he's in his late 30s, was well worth the cost of his contract.


In a separate deal, we sent Eric Byrnes to Colorado.


The real story here? Contending. Now.

We've got the real pieces the puzzle and so, we're going to attempt to join the fray of area teams that have won titles. Philadelphia won last year, the Yankees haven't won since 2000 and the Mets are still thinking of '86.

Our gamble is that the momentum of success on the Jersey Shore, will bolster the team's prospects and create fans out of the next generation of baseball fans in Jersey, who are happy to have a team in their own backyard. If it doesn't work? Well, we'll have to work it out some other way.

Here's where team payrolls are after the expansion draft:

We don't really have much wiggle room, at this point. We could spend another $20 million in theory, but I didn't intend to jump out of the gate, as we're already the 3rd top spending team in the AL East after the Yankees and Red Sox.

I think we've pretty much got our squad, I've got a few offers out on some depth veterans, but we're ready for our first season I think, for better or worse.

The season starts in mid-March, 162-game season with interleague (home and away) against another division in the other league. This year is E/E C/C and W/W.

Regular season ends to give a week of playoffs in September. I'm still wrestling with the playoff format, considering post-poning the expansion of post-season for another year and keeping it status quo.

Interesting. Why the six-division alignment for 32 teams? I'd have thought eight of four would be possible. Playoffs would have been a hoot with 16 teams by replicating the NHL and having division finals. Imagine the Yanks and Boston (or New Jersey) going at it for years on end. Or the Cubs and Cards. Think they don't like each other now? :D

I have a generally difficult time with four-team divisions in baseball.

But now that you say that..I never thought about the divisional finals, because it's been so long since the NHL did it. But you know, that's actually a really good idea!

It'll make the 16-team playoffs easier to swallow long-term, too.

We're going to run 2009 as normal and we won't expand the playoffs until 2010 though.

To up the ante a bit, too, I'm going to use MarketCalc8 to determine the team's financials. That way, I can't just write fake blank checks forever to keep the team going.

MarketCalc9 will determine the team's market size number in the game (it's a 8, using Edison NJ as the team's sub-DMA)

Our numbers break down like this:

Projected budget room: $14,048,266
Fan Loyalty: Non-existent
Fan Interest: 94
Market size: Big

I might try to shed a few contracts before we get started or do so at mid-season, depending on how we're doing. But we really don't want to cram too much more under things this year, though it'd be great to contend this year, that seems a bit unlikely.

OPENING DAY PAYROLL (2009)


Here are the top farm systems in MLB:

Well, a month in and we're not the worst team in the league. I'd hope not, given how much money we've spent to get this operation up and going. I'm going to try to find a reporting style that works for this, because it's been a while since I've done one of these.

STANDINGS AS OF MAY 1, 2009

I cut Kenji Johjima at the beginning of the season and after a month, released both Tim Wakefield and Pedro Martinez. I brought up two youngsters and we'll see how that goes for us. It's not even about money, it's about seeing whether the team can get a spark. I doubt we'll be playoff bound, only 4 spots this last year and we're not really built for it, but..I'd like to see us be competitive anyway.

So far we're 28th in the majors in attendance, ahead of Kansas City, San Diego, Baltimore and Pittsburgh. But we're 12th in gate revenue just behind the Mets, because our average ticket price is pretty high, given the small stadium size. I wonder if we start winning if that'll change.

PILOTS MAKE WAVES, SIGN SHEETS

Despite being injured, the New Jersey Pilots signed Ben Sheets to a 2-year deal worth $14.5 million in mid-June, to bolster their rotation for a possible playoff run.

"We think he's going to coming back stronger than ever and so, we decided to make this proactive move and he's happy to join us," said D.C. Mitchell.

But the move the team made after signing sheets, rocked baseball.

Saying he wanted a "swan song" after all of the controversial swirling his alleged use of performance enhancing drugs, Roger Clemens caused a circus when he agreed to a one-year, pro-rated deal at $6.4 million to pitch the rest of the season for the Pilots.

"The New York area has always been good to me. The fans are the best and I look forward to helping this team get to the post-season. It'd be the way to go out," he said.

If -- and it's big if -- Clemens and Sheets can perform well, it'll give the Pilots a shot in the arm (no pun intended) down the stretch.

Clemens will make his first start sometime in July, while Sheets is expected to join the team later that month, if his rehab continues to go well.

STANDINGS AS OF JULY 20, 2009

I'm going to try hard not to turn this thing into a stat dump, but I'm still trying to find a way to write it where you can 1) see who's on the team and 2) follow our progress.

Maybe I'll just do season reviews, where you can see how we did, see our stats and find out what's next. Ultimately, that's all I want to cover anyway. So that's my plan going forward.

Okay, we're in a pennant race and it's our first season so I'm going to slow down.

Here are the standings as of September 3, 2009


We are within striking distance of the Wild Card, 2 1/2 games out with 17 games to go. So it's realistic. This is the last season of this format, we'll switch formats next year and so, we'll just see how it goes.

Ok, I'm going to do a game-by-game account of the rest of our season or at least until we're out of the pennant race.

Here's our schedule down the stretch:
So we've got 14 of our last 17 at home, we're 40-28 at home this year and so....that's encouraging.

Not exactly a team of brusiers. Todd Helton has been woeful, he's hitting .226 with 11 HRs and 76 RBI this year and well, if I could find a way to dispatch him I would. But maybe that's why Colorado was so willing to send him packing. We're stuck with him for another two years, though.

I think overall, we've got a fair shot. A lot of spare parts on this ballclub, no real breakout stars, but I think that's owing to letting the AI manage the team for half the year and so, a lot of guys didn't get consistent playing time at their spots.

In any case, let's see how this pans out.

9/4

New Jersey 9, Boston 7
(Mat Gamel went 3 for 5 with 2 RBI in the win, Ichiro went 3 for 3 with 2 runs scored and a walk)

STANDINGS
----
AL EAST
Tampa (84-63)
Baltimore (83-65) 1.5 GB
New Jersey (81-66) 3 GB

AL WILD CARD
Baltimore (83-65)
New Jersey 1.5 GB
New York 4 GB

Needless to say, we picked a very good time to start thriving, in our matchup against the defending AL Champs. We're now 2 games out in the AL East, 1 1/5 games out in the AL Wild Card and we get two more games against them and four more against Baltimore next week. In other words, if we want to win the division or a playoff spot, it's there for the taking and we just need to man up and get at it.

9/8
New Jersey 2, Tampa Bay 0

9/9
New Jersey 6, Tampa Bay 1

We got the four-game sweep of the Rays, which for the moment puts us in a three-way tie with Tampa and Baltimore for the AL East lead, pending the results of the NYY-BAL game later today.

Most important, it means that if we can tak some games against our expansion brethen at home against Portland, that we'll be setup well for the matchup next week against Baltimore, which could decide the playoff race. It's all very hairy right now and it's almost anyone's tourney. The Yankees sit 4 games out of the Wild Card.

9/10
New Jersey 4, Portland 3

We've won 9 of our last 10 and 5 straight games. As a side note, all of the area teams are within the playoff hunt. The Mets have already clinched the NL East, the Phillies cling to a slight lead in the NL Wild Card race, then there's us and the Yankees are fading, but still part of the conversation for now.

AL EAST
----
New Jersey 86-67
Baltimore 86-67
Tampa Bay 85-68 1 GB
New York Yankees 81-73 5.5 GB

9/11
New Jersey 8, Portland 5

9/12
New Jersey 5, Portland

The Jersey engine just keeps on chugging. We've won seven straight and have completed our second straight series sweep this week, as we prepare to host Baltimore in the last homestand of the season.

AL EAST
---
New Jersey 88-67
Baltimore 1 GB
Tampa Bay 2 GB
New York 5.5 GB

9/13
New Jersey 8, Baltimore 1

9/14
Baltimore 16, New Jersey 3

9/15
New Jersey 6, Baltimore 5

With 4 games left to go this season, we have a magic number of 3.

AL EAST
----
New Jersey 90-68
Baltimore 2 GB
Tampa Bay 2 GB

AL CENTRAL: Toronto (85-73)
AL WEST: Oakland (83-75)

AL WILD CARD
----
Baltimore
Tampa Bay
New York 4 GB

NL EAST: New York (97-61)
NL CENTRAL: St. Louis (87-71)
NL WEST: Arizona (90-68)

NL WILD CARD
----
Philadelphia (86-73)
Atlanta 1/2 GB (85-73)
Florida 1/2 GB (85-73)
Colorado 1.5 GB (84-74)
Los Angeles 1.5 GB (84-74)
San Diego 2 GB (84-75)

9/16
New Jersey 14, Baltimore 1

Tampa Bay lost to Boston, giving New Jersey a tie for the AL East title in our first year. Baltimore and Tampa remain tied for the AL Wild Card.

9/18

New Jersey 7, New York 3

We beat the Yankees and as such, clinched the AL East title.

Baltimore won and clinched the AL Wild Card.

In the National League, tomorrow is the last day of the season and here are the standings.

NL WILD CARD
----
Atlanta 87-74
Los Angeles 87-74
Colorado 1 GB
Florida 1 GB
Philadelphia 1 GB

9/19
Philadelphia @ New York
Colorado @ Arizona
San Diego @ Los Angeles
Florida @ Atlanta

So here's the scenario:

We could have a five-way tie for the NL Wild Card, because if Los Angeles and Atlanta lose and Colorado and Philadelphia win (Florida would have to beat Atlanta) then we'd have a five-way tie.

How to resolve this? Is anyone's guess...

Atlanta and Los Angeles both won, so it'll just force a one-game playoff between the two to determine who'll advance. Or so I thought, as it seems OOTP decided that Los Angeles would advance without the game. So I dunno what that's about.

But oh well.

AMERICAN LEAGUE DIVISION SERIES

NJ v. OAK
Game 1: New Jersey 5, Oakland 0
Philip Hughes pitched 7 innings, struck out 9 and walked 3 in the win

Other games:

BAL 7, TOR 2
LA 17, ARZ 15
STL 2, NYN 1

GAME 2: Oakland 6, New Jersey 5
Erik Bedard got the loss, as the series is now tied 1-1.

BAL 4, TOR 3 (BAL leads 2-0)
LA 12, ARZ 4 (LA leads 2-0)
NYN, 14, STL 5 (Series tied at 1-1)

GAME 3: Oakland 6, New Jersey 4 (OAK leads 2-1)
TOR 8, BAL 2 (BAL leads 2-1)
ARZ 5, LAD 0 (LAD leads 2-1)
STL 5, NYN 4 (STL leads 2-1)

GAME 4: New Jersey 6, Oakland 4 (11 innings)
We scored 4 runs in the top of the 11th, Oakland scored 2 in the bottom of that inning, but we win. Roger Clemens went 8 innings, struck out 9 and walked 1. Steroids work, friends.

BAL 5, TOR 4 (BAL leads 3-1)
LAD 11, ARZ 10 (11 innings, LAD leads 3-1)
NYN 10, STL 5 (Series tied at 2-2)

GAME 5: New Jersey 11, Oakland 3 (NJ wins 3-2)
St. Louis 4, New York 3 (STL wins 3-2)

I forgot the Division Series is just a best of five. So I guess we take on Baltimore in the ALCS. In the NLCS it'll be the Dodgers and Cardinals.

LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

New Jersey v. Baltimore
Game 1: NJ 4, BAL 2
Game 2: NJ 8, BAL 0
Game 3: BAL 8, NJ 5
Game 4: BAL 5, NJ 4 (11 innings)
Game 5: BAL 2, NJ 1
Game 6: NJ 6, BAL 5 (Pilots scored 5 runs in the bottom of the 9th to get the win and force a Game 7)
Game 7: BAL 3, NJ 2 (A run in the top of the 8th gave the Orioles the win and they had to the World Series)

Los Angeles v. St. Louis
Game 1: LA 11, STL 4
Game 2: LA 11, STL 6
Game 3: STL 8, LA 3
Game 4: STL 16, LA 6
Game 5: STL 6, LA 1
Game 6: STL 3, LA 1 (St. Louis wins series 4-2)

Good job getting so far so quickly.

Very cool dynasty idea. I grew up in Hazlet which is right next door to Keansburg.

Well, you could do 4x8 rather than 8x4, but the annoyance there is the NL. If you want to keep the realism, then you have to find a way to keep the Cubs and Cards in the East because they'd fight any West division relocation for them tooth-and-nail. It's why Cincy and Atlanta were in the NL West after the expansion/realignment of the late 1960s. If you did the same treatment to the current NL, you'd end up with Atlanta and Florida along with Houston in the West. Even if that weren't an issue, it's still difficult to pick three from Houston, Chicago, St. Louis, and Milwaukee to go to the West. The AL would cleave easier with KC, Chicago, and Minnesota going west (which is where they were before the current alignment).

Even if you do 4x8, there'd still be some things to consider. To wit:
The AL West (Seattle, Portland, Oakland, LA/Anaheim) and NL West (SF, LA, SD, Arizona) would be pretty straightforward.

In the AL East, New York, Boston, and New Jersey would be three teams, but then you could go with either Toronto, Baltimore, or Tampa for the fourth. If the fourth in the East is Toronto, then you could put Minny, CWS, Detroit, and Cleveland together in a "North", and then Baltimore, TB, KC, and Texas in a "South". If it's Baltimore, then it's probably best to group Toronto, Cleveland, Detroit and Tampa in a "Central", followed by CWS, Minny, KC and Texas in a "Midwest". If it's Tampa as the East fourth team, then it's the same as with Baltimore, except Baltimore and Tampa flip-flop.

The NL is a bit trickier. Philly and New York are a lock for the NL East, but after that it's hard to decide the best approach. Washington most likely would end up in the East as well, though conceivably, you could put Pittsburgh and Cincy in the East, which would bump Washington into a probable "South" with Florida, Atlanta, and Houston. This would lead to a "North/Midwest" of Chicago, St. Louis, Milwaukee and Colorado. If Washington is in the East as the third team, then the choice becomes either Pittsburgh or Florida for the fourth (Atlanta in the East would leave Florida in some non-sensical alignment with midwest teams in my view). If the fourth is Pittsburgh, that most probably leads to FLA, Atlanta, Houston, and Cincy in a "South", with the Cubs-STL-MIL-COL alignment again for the remaining division. An alternative with some stretching done would be to change Colorado and Cincy, thus Colorado ends up in the "South" and Cincy in the "North" with Chicago, St. Louis, and Milwaukee.

If the fourth in the East is Florida, then it gets a bit messy trying to split up the remaining teams and would be harder to keep STL and Chicago together. One possible outcome would be Atlanta-Pitt-Cincy-Milwaukee, leaving Chicago-STL-Colorado-Houston. If Chicago-STL preservation isn't important, then, ATL-STL-COL-HOU could be a division and then CHI-MIL-CIN-PIT would be the remainder.

One really exotic possibility would be to actually have the Rockies in the West. This would mean constructing a very elongated "South" stretching from Florida to Atlanta to Houston to Arizona (thus, unlikely to actually be created). The NL East would be NYM-PHI-PIT-WAS and the "North" would be CHI-STL-MIL-CIN.

(Yes, I spend a lot of time thinking about things like this. :D I've realigned many pro sports leagues more times than I can count trying to find the best geographic fit for everything.)

I love that you've indulged me on this topic, because I was indeed wrecking my brain thinking about it for a good while the other day, once I got this started.

I'm most certainly going to do your idea of a Divisional Championship Series between the 1 v. 2 of each division, it's just the alignments I needed to figure out.

But you've reiterated a lot of my thoughts on this, so..it'll be fun to flesh it out!

The only other major error I'm going to fix is changing the name of the Tampa Bay Rays to the St. Petersburg Pelicans.

I was going to move them, but that's just too much trouble, really.

Calgary-based EnCana buys Toronto Blue Jays

CALGARY -- The Toronto Blue Jays will remain in Canada, the question is, will they stay in Toronto? Calgary-based EnCana purchased the team -- an uncharacteristic move for the conservative energy behemoth -- from the Rogers Group, after the death of Ted Rogers last year hastened the move of the club off the Rogers balance sheet.

With the sale, the Rogers Centre (SkyDome) is still owned by the Rogers group and the team has a "get out of a jail free" card in terms of an ability to strike a new lease with Rogers after this season -- under the option that the owners wanted to move the team elsewhere -- though at the time of the negotiation, this prospect seems "wildly unlikely," according to one source.

But the escalation from "wildly unlikely" to "highly probable" became so when the City of Vancouver -- a place that's long desired a baseball team of its own -- contacted officials with the company, to offer them a highly desired spot at the newly renovated BC Place Stadium in Vancouver.

Ownership believes a move west would create an instant rivalry with the Portland and Seattle clubs in the AL West and would give the team a chance to begin mining for fans among the Asian populations in both Vancouver and in Japan.

"They're exploring some pretty lucrative opportunities to turn the Blue Jays brand into the first global baseball franchise. Being based in Canada gives them an opportunity to branch the team out in a variety of different directions and it seems they've got a pretty good idea of what they want to do, whether the team stays or goes."

Toronto would seem to be a better spot to start global media hegemony for a baseball team, but the new owners are bothered by playing in "the old owner's backyard" and feel that a new city would give them a chance to "invigorate" the team's brand after they managed to make the playoffs for the first time since 1993 last year, winning the AL Central.

"So they'd go from being Toronto's team to truly Canada's, because people now will not root for them out of spite, given their locale. This might actually help them nationally."

MLB announces new playoff format
MLB officials have not responded to requests regarding a possible move, but more information is expected to come after the owner's meetings next week in Phoenix, where MLB is also going to unveil its new 8-division alignment for the 2010 season.

Playoffs next year will add a new round. As of 2010, MLB playoffs will go like this:

Division Playoff Series (best-of-five)
Division Series (best-of-seven)
LCS (best-of-seven)
World Series (best-of-seven)

I know the area well. Go Jersey, woo!

MLB owners approve the sale of the Blue Jays

MLB owners approved the sale of the Toronto Blue Jays to EnCana 29-3 with Seattle, Portland and Oakland all voting no. The owners approved the team's move to Vancouver, starting with the 2010 season.

Okay, here's the realignment plan.

It requires some shifting of teams, to make it work a bit better.


Here's baseball's new alignment: