Arizona to Learn the American Way

The Arizona Diamondbacks are favored to win the National League West title again--the last time they will be in that position.

The Diamondbacks will move to the American League West in 2001. Major league owners will make it official at either their mid-April or mid-June meetings.

Jerry Colangelo, Arizona’s managing general partner, has strongly opposed the move but acknowledges, “There’s nothing more we can do. We’ve expressed our opinion. We’ve expressed the logic of our remaining in the National League, the history behind it. But most people seem to believe this will benefit the whole, so we have to accept it. In both our baseball and basketball operations [Colangelo also runs the Phoenix Suns], we’ve prided ourselves on being a good partner.”

In fact, the good partner added, “If there’s an absolute commitment to realign in 2001, the sooner it’s addressed the better. We’re going to have to do some retooling, re-educating and re-marketing.”

The commitment to realign in 2001 is absolute.

The 16-team National League will be divided into four divisions of four teams each. The winners advance to the playoffs, eliminating the NL wild card. Both leagues will play an unbalanced schedule for the first time in 25 years, meaning more games against division rivals. The interleague schedule will retain the best of the geographic pairings--Dodgers vs. Angels, for example--but will begin to revolve through the divisions, with East and West proving the twain can meet.

It’s a significant change but, as Colangelo noted, “If we move [to the AL], as it appears we’re going to, I don’t think it’s the end of the story. I think it’s only a steppingstone to a whole new look. The real story is what the landscape is going to look like two or three years from now, and I think it’s going to change even more dramatically.”

Colangelo said he would not be surprised if the lines separating the American and National leagues didn’t continue to fade in an effort to reduce travel, improve scheduling and take advantage of geographic rivalries, particularly if the designated hitter is eliminated.

Neither would he be surprised, he said, if the concept of Colorado, Arizona and the six West Coast teams forming their own division or league didn’t resurface.

That’s a concept Peter Magowan, the San Francisco Giants’ managing general partner, opposed as strongly when initially proposed as Colangelo has opposed leaving the National League. The difference is, Magowan could use the threat of a veto while Colangelo will be without a vote when the current proposal goes before the owners.

He and expansion colleague Vince Naimoli of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays were guaranteed two years in their initial locations, after which they could be moved without either having a vote, let alone a veto.

The Devil Rays will move from the American League East next year to a new National League division--to be called either the South or Southeast-- with Florida, Atlanta and Cincinnati. Naimoli is all for it, hopeful that the geographic grouping with Florida and Atlanta, along with the more frequent appearances of Ken Griffey Jr. and the Reds, will spur attendance, which fell 700,000 last year, only Tampa Bay’s second.

Colangelo, in contrast, believes he has nothing to gain from the change in leagues and could suffer a significant attendance blow.

He cites surveys that show 85% of his ticket buyers favor the National League, the proximity to San Diego, Colorado and Los Angeles and an NL-oriented history in the Phoenix area. Dodger broadcasts have been heard there for more than four decades, the Giants have long trained and their triple-A team played there for many years, and the Chicago Cubs have long attracted thousands of spring snowbirds.

In addition, the Diamondbacks simply believe the Dodgers, Giants, Rockies and Padres are better attractions than anything the AL West has to offer.

They may be right, but the debate is over.

The key, Colangelo said, was a commitment baseball made to the Texas Rangers even before the Diamondbacks were created--to move the Rangers out of the AL West and into the Central Division and time zone so that most of their radio broadcasts would start at an earlier time for Texas listeners.

“I respect that,” Colangelo said. “The radio aspect is important. If people think this is best for the Rangers and schedule makers in the short term . . . well, we’ve stated our position loudly and clearly. The commissioner [Bud Selig] has described our franchise as one of baseball’s jewels. Now our dilemma is his dilemma. We’ll know in a couple years if I was right or wrong.”

As it stands, the two leagues will look like this next year:

NATIONAL

West--Dodgers, San Francisco, San Diego, Colorado.

Central--Houston, St. Louis, Chicago and Milwaukee.

South--Atlanta, Florida, Tampa Bay and Cincinnati.

East--New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Montreal.

AMERICAN

West--Angels, Oakland, Seattle, Arizona.

Central--Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Minnesota, Kansas City and Texas.

East--New York, Boston, Toronto and Baltimore.

Basically, every team is in its proper time zone except Colorado, Cleveland and Detroit.

A five-team Central and a five-team East that included either the Indians or Tigers would be more logical, but officials insist that a six-team Central is necessary for complex scheduling reasons.

The other incongruity involves the Ohio-based Reds playing in a South or Southeast division with Atlanta, Florida and Tampa Bay.

“It doesn’t make much sense from a geographical standpoint, but we’re willing to do it if it benefits the game,” Cincinnati General Manager Jim Bowden said, adding he would prefer to remain in the Central--baseball’s most glamorous division, given the presence of Griffey, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa--until his new stadium opens in 2003.

“Besides, if we had to move into a division with Atlanta, then [Greg] Maddux, [Tom] Glavine and [John] Smoltz would be closer to retirement, and that would be a lot better for us,” he said, laughing.

TANGLED WEB

A top baseball official, confirming that the commissioner’s office has begun its own investigation into the Monday night incident involving Al Martin of the San Diego Padres, calls it “probably the most bizarre we’ve ever encountered.”

Is he a bigamist? Is there a pattern of spousal abuse?

Ed Sprague, who played with Martin in Pittsburgh and is now teamed with him again, found it hard to believe.

“That’s certainly a side of Al I’ve never seen,” Sprague said. “There’s got to be some circumstances we’re not aware of. He’s just not that type of person.”

WHO’S THE SHERIFF?

The Padres aren’t about to let Kevin Malone forget it. The Dodger general manager announced last spring that he was the new sheriff in town, which produced a series of friendly but pointed needles from Padre General Manager Kevin Towers.

Well, Towers delivers another on the cover of the Padre 2000 media guide that was distributed in Arizona Saturday. Towers, club owner John Moores, President Larry Lucchino and Manager Bruce Bochy are shown in Western garb under a rawhide Arizona sign reading “Sheriff.”

Said a laughing Padre official: “You think it’s Towers who’s going to take a little heat this time?”

INTERNATIONAL PASTIME

The Chicago Cubs and New York Mets left their training bases Friday for Japan, where they will open the National League season with games Wednesday and Thursday.

It’s a demanding trip, but Cub President Andy MacPhail cited the importance of securing the game’s global popularity for several reasons, one being the talent pipeline:

“The game’s biggest problem is . . . the fact that you have more teams than players,” he said. “The supply of players doesn’t meet the demand. From a selfish standpoint, if we can improve the supply and the quality by making the game more popular worldwide, that’s something we ought to do.”

Each player will receive $25,000 to compensate for jet lag. The original plan was to have Sosa and the Cubs play McGwire and the St. Louis Cardinals, but McGwire led the Cardinals in opposition, and spoke out about it again this week.

He said the season is too long to take on a trip of that nature, that officials should focus on improving the game “here in the United States,” that “there’s not a good time any time to send a team out of the country,” that there are already enough foreign players here and that the only reason the Mets and Cubs are making this “ridiculous” trip is that “somebody in Japan paid Major League Baseball a lot of money.”

Now, if John Rocker had said that. . . .