Baseball Fans are Wrong:

Baseball fans think they are right. What a silly misconception. Fans everywhere think that it is a fantabulous idea to even the leagues with 15 teams (moving Houston to the NL West and the Arizona Diamondbacks to the AL West). Makes sense. I mean having 6 teams puts every member of the NL Central at a disadvantage, and obviously it is the opposite for the 4 teams in the AL West. Why not square up the odds? Make it fair for everyone? The blame should be placed on Connie Mack (who?) and John Claiborne. Mack was the manager of the Philadelphia Athletics in 1906. What does this early 20th century skipper have to do with today's league format? And what about Claiborne? He was the Philadelphia Phillies' G.M. in 1973. How can these two men be the cause of baseball's format conundrum? Easy for you fellow baseball buffs. Mack, as everyone knows, was the first to suggest the designated hitter. Ah, the DH, we have arrived at the cause. Because of the American League having a designated hitter, inter-league play has been reserved for the month of June. Baseball set up its divisions the way it did because the Designated Hitter made scheduling too hard. It meant that every series, a national league team would be playing an American League team and would have to deal with a DH. So, Mack is at fault because his Designated Hitter idea has bloomed into scheduling problems, but what about this Claiborne fellow? How is it his fault? Do not fear loyal reader(s?), i have the answer to that as well. Claiborne decided he did not need to vote on the National League's adoption of the designated hitter. Claiborne had been an open supporter of the N.L. adopting the position, but forwent voting anyway. From there you can probably assume the result. Not voting is equal to a "no" vote. The National League voted down the DH. Claiborne decided not to vote, and the DH fell. This left the Leagues unbalanced...resulting in the scheduling conflict that continues to this day. So, the DH is to blame (thus Mack and Claiborne). So if the DH was removed or put into the National League or the American League got rid of the DH (haha, good one!), the move could be made and a schedule like that of the NBA could be used. One other solution that is ridiculous would be to add two brand spankin' new teams to the American League, but i digress.

In Conclusion: Many baseball fans i talk to say, "Why do they not even up the leagues?" Well my loyal follower(s?) i have brought to you the reasoning for Bud Selig and Baseball's elite keeping the format the way it is. With the designated hitter being the way it is, scheduling inter-league series would become far too complex. It is already hard enough to schedule 162 games effectively, so adding this little problem is not worth it...Sorry Cincinnati, Chicago, Houston, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis...for now you will still have to beat out more teams than any other team in order to make the playoffs (wild card anyone?)