Dodgers Love New Look of National League West

If you ask the Dodgers, more than the National League divisions were realigned Monday.

So were their chances for future success.

“This is good for us,” Darryl Strawberry said after the Cincinnati Reds and Atlanta Braves were moved to the East Division. “The Reds and Braves are tough. Having them in the East is going to make that a tougher division than the West.

“I would say that with the realignment, next season we would have to be the team to beat in the West. The Cubs and Cardinals are good, but they aren’t powerful.”

Brett Butler said the absence of this season’s two front-runners was not as important as the reduced travel.

“We’re talking about less trips to the Eastern time zone for us, and that makes a big difference to ballplayers,” Butler said. “Every time we travel there from here, it takes me about 1 1/2 days to catch up. The first game on an Eastern trip is sluggish for any team from the West.”

Fred Claire, Dodger vice president, said he was stunned by the ruling.

“But only because I was not expecting it to happen,” he said. “I have always maintained it is obviously logical. Two teams in the West who play in the Eastern time zone vs. two teams in the East who are in the Central time zone.

“It just made sense to switch. It will definitely help our scheduling.”

Claire would not comment on whether the scheduling changes would include changing the starting time of home games at Dodger Stadium, perhaps to 7 p.m., so the Cubs and Cardinals could broadcast more games from here in prime time.

“Changes have been discussed, but nothing is official,” he said.

The Dodgers didn’t seem too upset that their traditional rivalry with the Reds would be diminished.

“Rivalries are always there,” Claire said. “They just seem to get hot at different times.”