If you’re still on the outfield fence about Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig, read Tom Verducci’s March 9 Sports Illustrated column about the league’s talk of floating realignment.
The idea is baseball’s attempt to address issues of “competitive balance” and would allow big changes in how divisions are organized based on whether a team thinks it can field a winner in a given season.
Verducci even uses the Indians as an example of a rebuilding team that may desire to opt out of contention before opening day and trade its traditional division schedule for one that would bring the Yankees and Red Sox to Progressive Field more frequently and, thus, more bodies to the ballpark. How many empty seats do you think Tribe owner Larry Dolan will have to gaze out upon before this starts sounding like a good idea?
Verducci points out that the idea is “nothing more than a concept” now. But it is evidence that Selig wants to shake up baseball
So with every crazy idea on the table, we came up with one of our own while listening to former Indians hurler C.C. Sabathia bask in the spring-training glow of his first World Series title.
Starting with the 2011 baseball season, every non-Yankees player on a Major League roster will be put in a lottery for the chance to be placed on an already stacked Yankees team for one season during their career. Every other team must take part in a profit-sharing model that ensures the Yankees have even more money to field the best team each season.
I mean, how else can we ensure that every big-league player has a legitimate opportunity to win a World Series ring? It only makes sense, right?
