How the AL East Became the Least

That the Baltimore Orioles occupy first place is a source of some amusement around the American League East. That they are the only team in the alignment to have won at least as many games as they have lost should be a source of embarrassment. The mighty haven’t just fallen; they’ve crashed.

Not so long ago, George Steinbrenner salted his proclamations with the boast that the New York Yankees competed in baseball’s toughest division. Certainly, there was ample evidence to support the argument in the first half of the decade. Now, as the 1980s draw to a close, the East is synonymous with least.

It did not happen overnight. After all, every other division in baseball has claimed a world championship since the Detroit Tigers’ spectacular surge in 1984. The oft-maligned West has provided three of the American League’s last four World Series representatives. And, in 1988, it swept the league’s major individual awards (Most Valuable Player, Cy Young and Rookie of the Year) for the first time in 14 years.

Still, the East had been able to counter with assertions of superior depth, in other words, more legitimate contenders. Not anymore. After three weeks of the season, all seven members have been shown to be pretenders to a hollow crown. Recall that a year ago the Boston Red Sox finished first by a game after staggering to 89 victories, the lowest total by an ’88 division winner, and were swept in the playoffs by the Oakland Athletics. Such a campaign this summer--89 in ‘89--might result in a runaway.

Not since 1973, when the Mets rallied from last place in August to take the National League East title, has a race appeared to offer such meager prospects. Because of weather considerations, it wasn’t until a day after the scheduled end of the regular season that the New York Mets clinched with the only winning record (82-79) in the division. Their .509 percentage remains the lowest ever to win a championship.

That dubious achievement could be challenged. In fact, this may be the year that baseball qualifies a losing team for postseason activity for the first time. The possibility of such a development is ever present in the American League because of its commitment to so-called balanced scheduling, whereby teams play more interdivision than intradivision games, 84-78. And the East’s record against the West to date suggests a terrible imbalance.

Of the 51 crossover games played through Sunday, the East won 18 and lost 33. And it wasn’t until Mondy night that an Eastern team played its first game against the defending American League champion A’s or began its initial West Coast trip, a traditionally disorienting journey.

If any series typified the fluctuating fortunes of the two divisions, it occurred in Boston last weekend. Kansas City pummeled the Red Sox by scores of 7-4, 7-3 and 10-0. It marked the Royals’ first three-game sweep at Fenway Park since 1971.

The trio of victories left the Royals third in the West with an 11-7 record. The defeats dropped the Red Sox into a third-place tie in the East at 7-9. That is how poorly the division has performed in 1989. Only one team has managed a winning record at home.

So, let’s have a round of applause for the Orioles, who spent the previous five years decaying from a world championship club to the worst team in baseball. They bottomed out last season after losing their first 21 games. Their improvement in 1989 has been magnified by the decline of their division rivals.

Boston has lost Bruce Hurst, its good left arm, and added the emotional baggage of Margo Adams. Toronto has temporarily lost indispensable shortstop Tony Fernandez, and the Blue Jays have never been known for their resilience. The Yankees dispensed with Jack Clark and lost Claudell Washington before Dave Winfield took to a hospital bed. Milwaukee was beset with injuries to its pitching staff. Detroit has been reduced to intangibles and a manager who can find a silver lining in a thunderstorm. Cleveland is Cleveland.

Such a devaluation does portend a close race. Provided no team steps forward, the Yankees can be demeaned but not discounted. And, yes, even the uh-oh-Orioles may be a factor. Consider it an indictment of the once-proud division.

Scorn was reserved for the American League West at the start of the decade. Remember when the Oakland team, its cupboard left bare by Charles O. Finley, was known as the Triple A’s? The Twinkies grew into the world champion Twins in 1987.

And the Texas Strangers? They’re the Rangers again after storming to the best record in the majors after three weeks. Even the Chicago White Sox and the perennially dreary Seattle Mariners have displayed signs of life this season. Unfortunately for them, they’re not in the other division.

The shift from East to West has not been limited to the junior circuit. After all, five of the six teams in the National League West won more games than they lost in 1988, and the Los Angeles Dodgers not only upset the Mets in the playoffs, but stunned the A’s in the first all-West World Series since 1974. Yet the presence of the Mets in the East serves as a counterweight for the time being.

Of course, that may change over the course of the season. East and West met for the first time Monday night, when Philadelphia journeyed to Houston. By Tuesday night, all 12 National League clubs will be engaged in interdivisional play.

Judging by early results, the most likely subway series would match not the Mets and Yankees but Oakland and San Francisco, in a competition linked by Bay Area Rapid Transit.

Wouldn’t it be something if the first championship conducted under the auspices of Bart Giamatti, commissioner, turned out to be the first BART series?