Playing Out Ueberroth’s Suggestions

Peter Ueberroth is a man of many ideas about baseball, not all of them good. Collusion comes to mind. Collusion, Angel fans, is the reason Chili Davis became a “new-look” free agent last winter, which is the reason the Angels trail the Minnesota Twins by seven games in the American League West standings.

And the Angels still list Ueberroth as a member of their board of directors.

Apparently, Gene Autry has a keen appreciation for irony.

Collusion was an idea that ultimately cost baseball’s owners $280 million, but last week in an interview with The Sporting News, Ueberroth offered a few new ones for the cut-rate price of $0.00.

If Ueberroth were king again, he says he would:

a) Not stop at Denver and Miami and expand again, leveling the American and National Leagues at 15 teams apiece.

b) Realign both leagues into three divisions of five teams, add two wild cards and create a second tier of playoffs.

c) Institute limited inter-league play.

All of this, Ueberroth notes, would have to be predicated on the resumption of the old 154-game schedule, which is where his argument really takes flight.

In my mind, there’s never been anything wrong with baseball that a shorter season couldn’t cure.

As a card-carrying member of the George Will Never Be Right About Anything In Our Lifetime Assn., I personally believe the baseball season starts to drag some time around April 15. I do admit that my perspective could be tainted. I covered the Angels for four years.

But look at such venerable baseball burghs as Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston and Milwaukee. It’s the last day of July, more than two months to go, and their seasons are in the dumpster. Look at the middle of the pack--the Reds, the Cardinals, the Mariners, the Angels. Decent enough teams, all of them, who probably can start planning their October getaways.

As of Tuesday morning, baseball had four division leaders (Minnesota, Toronto, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh) and four teams within five games of the top (Chicago White Sox, Oakland, the New York Mets and Atlanta). That’s eight of 26 major league teams with believable playoff chances, a lonely 31%.

Add two playoff berths to both leagues, though, and that number more than doubles. Nine teams are still hanging on within five games of second place--Cincinnati, San Diego, San Francisco, St. Louis, the New York Yankees, Boston, Texas, Seattle and, yes, the Angels.

Under which plan do August and September sound more interesting?

A wild-card format could be implemented tomorrow; simply throw in the four second-place finishers. But since Ueberroth brought up the three-division alignment, we’ll play it out for him. We’ll even expand both leagues for him--the American League gets Tampa-St. Petersburg and the National League, to stop the whining, says all right already to Washington D.C.

The American League, circa 1994:

West--Angels, Oakland, Seattle, Kansas City, Texas.

Central--Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee, Minnesota.

East--Baltimore, Boston, New York, Toronto, Tampa-St. Pete.

And the National:

West--Dodgers, Denver, Houston, San Diego, San Francisco.

Central--Atlanta, Chicago, Cincinnati, Montreal, St. Louis.

East--Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington, D.C.

As solutions go, this one isn’t perfect. The Angels, you will notice, are still stuck with the A’s. Life isn’t fair. But with a wild-card, life would be easier.

Consult the Angels’ seasons of 1985, 1984 and 1978.

Fifteen-team leagues would necessitate some form of inter-league play, maybe three or six games between geographic rivals. The Sammy Maudlins of baseball, of course, fall faint at such talk. Oh, the mystique of the World Series! The Fall Classic will be forever defiled if we let the Mets play one home-and-home series with the Yankees.

How did we ever survive the Grapefruit League?

Consider, briefly, the possibilities of inter-league play:

Angels-Dodgers. Fernando Valenzuela and Mike Marshall go back home.

Yankees-Mets. The Post and The Daily News go into convulsions.

White Sox-Cubs. Three whole days with no mention of Michael Jordan.

Rangers-Astros. Nolan Ryan vs. John McMullen.

Royals-Cardinals. And no Don Denkinger.

A’s-Giants. What would happen on a day the earth stood still?

The only problem with inter-league play is that there aren’t enough rivalries to go around. Who does Seattle play? The Vancouver Canadians? Who gets the Milwaukee Brewers? Who wants them?

So a few bugs remain. The basic concept, however, is sound enough for future study. Two more divisions, four more playoff teams, eight fewer games. This is an equation worth exploring.

And rest assured, it will be explored, sometime around 1993, when baseball’s television contract expires. Television wants expansion (more markets), it wants inter-league play (more viewers) and it wants more playoffs (more playoffs).

Television is also willing to pay, up to and into the billions, for what it wants.

With enough grease, no idea is too outrageous for baseball’s owners. If they can agree to undermine their own businesses by refusing to bid on the best available talent, they can agree on anything.