MLB season delayed

Yeah, I was just thinking of the in-state rivalry.

 

Cleveland-Pittsburgh is one of the few "natural" rivalries that is kind of natural. Blue Jays-Phillies? Red Sox and Braves are because Braves once were in Boston, which they left a snappy 67 years ago. Astros-Diamondbacks? Some of these are obviously what was left over as they were creating these rivalries, like at the end of a Scrabble game where you have like a K and four Is and have to make a word.

 

They tried to make Indians/Pirates a rivalry because of the Browns/Steelers rivalry. But it’s like @doctorquant trying to make riblets happen. It’s not going to happen.

 

Agreed.

 

Might have allowed the NL to stay DH-free. But that horse is long gone.

 

I get that. I've done the trips from Pittsburgh to Cleveland and Cincinnati before, so I know the geography of that area a little better.

 

A rare point of agreement between union and owners makes the game suck worse. Figures.

 

Except ... you have odd numbers of teams in each division. So that means somebody's not playing while the other four are. That unfortunately requires three interleague games every night instead of the usual one.

The only exception I've ever seen is an 11-team Florida State League in the mid-70s, when the independent Key West team folded. That was solved by rotating the bye night evenly between the 11 teams and eliminating most multi-game series. Then again, the longest trip at that time was probably four hours by bus. Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Pompano Beach and West Palm weren't 30 miles apart, so they never stayed over. Same with Tampa, St. Pete, Lakeland and Winter Haven.

 

Honestly, the idea of three 10-team leagues (East, Central, West) playing a balanced schedule was ideal for this situation. Of course, that thought probably never occured to MLB.