Realignment a Fine Idea--for This Year

On the first day of September, on the first day of baseball’s hallowed “stretch drive,” 14 major-league games were played.

One drew exactly 10,015 spectators.

Four drew between 15,000 and 20,000.

Five others drew less than 25,000.

Only two cranked the turnstiles more than 28,000 times--San Francisco at Atlanta (49,290) and Montreal at Colorado (46,781). This is not surprising. In Atlanta, the first-place Giants and the second-place Braves began the evening separated by only 3 1/2 games in the National League West standings. It was the only truly meaningful game on the schedule. In Denver, where the Rockies are worshiped, lose or lose, 46,000 would turn out at 7 a.m. for a Freddie Benavides autograph-signing festival.

In every other big-league park across North America, indifference ruled.

Out-of-it Cleveland at out-of-it Minnesota?

Kind-of-in-it Kansas City at waiting-for-Packers-season Milwaukee?

Pittsburgh at Los Angeles, resting a combined 39 1/2 games out of first place?

With still a month to go, Philadelphia has rendered the NL East race irrelevant. Chicago has started to pull away in the AL West. San Francisco-Atlanta and Toronto-New York are the only divisional contests left worth watching, meaning that fans in 22 of 28 major-league cities already have begun waiting till next year.

This is no way to operate a billion-dollar business, which baseball has finally acknowledged with its long-overdue concession to three-division-plus-wild-card realignment. The players want it, the owners appear willing to try it and as it stands now, April 1994 is the start-up date for the program change.

Had three-division alignment been in place this season, the standings in your Thursday morning newspaper would have read as such:

AL WEST

W L Pct. GB Texas 70 63 .526 -- Seattle 66 66 .500 4 1/2 Angels 59 73 .447 10 1/2 Oakland 52 80 .394 17 1/2

AL CENTRAL

W L Pct. GB Chicago 75 57 .568 -- Detroit 71 64 .526 5 1/2 Kansas City 69 65 .515 7 Milwaukee 58 77 .430 18 1/2 Minnesota 56 76 .424 19

AL EAST

W L Pct. GB Toronto 78 57 .578 -- New York 75 59 .560 2 1/2 Baltimore 71 62 .534 6 Boston 69 63 .523 7 1/2 Cleveland 63 70 .474 14

NL WEST

W L Pct. GB San Francisco 86 46 .652 -- Dodgers 66 65 .504 19 1/2 San Diego 53 80 .398 33 1/2 Colorado 50 84 .373 37

NL CENTRAL

W L Pct. GB St. Louis 73 60 .549 -- Houston 70 63 .526 3 Cincinnati 66 69 .489 8 Chicago 64 69 .481 9 Pittsburgh 63 70 .474 10

NL EAST

W L Pct. GB Philadelphia 83 50 .624 -- Atlanta 82 51 .617 1 Montreal 74 60 .552 9 1/2 Florida 55 77 .417 27 1/2 New York 46 87 .346 37

Observations:

--Five of six divisional championships would still be up for grabs, with only the NL West put to bed. San Franciscans thus would be able to sleep, a substantial improvement over their current condition--a rough approximation of the day after the 1989 earthquake.

--Nine American League teams would remain in contention for playoff berths. Suddenly, the situation is no longer hopeless in Seattle and, assuming Toronto holds on to win the East, five teams (New York, Baltimore, Detroit, Boston and Kansas City) would be waging a spirited chase for the wild-card spot.

--Five National League teams would be either in or within three games of first place. Houston would vote early and often for three divisions--from 16 1/2 games out in today’s NL West to three back in the NL Central. Shift one line of type, pick up 13 1/2 games in the standings.

--St. Louis becomes the leader in the NL Central, which means the Cardinals wouldn’t have already given up on the season, which means Lee Smith would still be saving games for the Cardinals.

--Texas becomes the leader in the AL West, giving Nolan Ryan the one last shot at the World Series he deserves, medical clearance pending.

--The Angels move up to third, giving them an automatic 1994 season ticket campaign: Our Highest Finish Since ‘89!!

--The Toronto-New York race remains a thriller. San Francisco-Atlanta is killed off, yes, but only to give birth to a few million more peptic disorders--Philadelphia-Atlanta. Where was three-division play in ‘64, when Gene Mauch needed it? Blow this lead and the worst thing that happens to Mauch is a wild-card invitation.

--The Mets remain in last place, 37 games out, same as they are in the two-division format.

See, the system is virtually flawless.

Certainly, it’s a better idea than the owners’ original proposal: Keep the divisions the way they are but add second-place finishers to the playoffs. Do that this year and suddenly San Francisco and Atlanta both have the playoffs cinched.

Are 49,000 fans going to elbow their way into Fulton County Stadium on a Wednesday night in early September, just to see who gets home-field advantage?