Thoughts on MLB Expansion

It's been nearly a quarter century since Major League Baseball added two new teams. Since then, every other major sports league has expanded at least once. The NBA added one team, the NFL added two (the Browns 2.0 and the Texans), and the NHL has added six franchises including the Seattle Kraken. Major League Soccer has tripled in size, adding 20 teams since the MLB added the Diamondbacks and Devil Rays. 

Baseball is overdue for some new teams, and a group led by Dave Stewart (with help from Tony LaRussa, Dave Dombrowski, and Justin Timberlake) want to bring Major League Baseball to Nashville. 

This seems like a good time for the league to consider expanding, with the minor leagues being decimated and super-sized rosters now including a DH for both leagues. Nashville is an established big league market. Mookie Betts was born and raised in the Music City, and there's a long history of professional baseball in Nashville. 

I have no doubt that there will be more than enough talent to fill two new teams, and more than enough interest. What I'm wondering is, which city would join Nashville as an expansion franchise - and how would the divisions be realigned?

A 32-team league equals either four divisions of eight teams or eight divisions of four teams. I prefer a 4 x 8 alignment:

AL East: Baltimore, Boston, NY Yankees, Tampa Bay, Toronto, *Cleveland, *Detroit
AL West: Houston, LA Angels, Oakland, Seattle, Texas, *Kansas City, *Minnesota
*added from the now-defunct AL Central 

NL East:  Atlanta, Miami, NY Mets, Philadelphia, Washington, *Cincinnati, *Pittsburgh
NL West: Arizona, Colorado, LA Dodgers, San Diego, San Francisco, *Milwaukee, *St. Louis
*added from the now-defunct NL Central

Notice I left out both Chicago teams. I have a feeling that these franchises will be instrumental in deciding how the leagues are realigned. Aside from their influence, their geography is a major advantage:

There are 14 MLB teams east of Nashville and 16 teams west of Nashville. But Chicago is just barely on the left side of the dividing line. I don't know how you'd feel about having one Chicago team in the East and one Chicago team in the West, but it would drive me nuts!

So here are our options. The first - and easiest - solution would be a second expansion team east of Nashville. Where would you expand to: Buffalo? Charlotte? Montreal? Hartford? (kidding!)

The second option would be eight divisions of four teams. Something like this:

AL East: Baltimore, Boston, NY Yankees, Tampa Bay
AL Central: Chi Sox, Cleveland, Detroit, Toronto
AL Midwest: Houston, Kansas City, Minnesota, Texas
AL West: LA Angels, Oakland, Seattle [Portland or Las Vegas]

If Portland entered the AL, Tampa would have the toughest travel in the league. Hold that thought.

NL East: Miami, NY Mets, Philadelphia, Washington
NL Central: Atlanta, Chi Cubs, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh
NL Midwest: Colorado, Milwaukee, St. Louis [Nashville]
NL West: Arizona, LA Dodgers, San Diego, San Francisco

Perhaps the Rays could become a National League franchise and form an NL South with the Braves, Marlins, and the new Nashville team. But let's try to keep this as simple as possible.

This eight division format breaks up the Braves-Mets rivalry and the Cubs-Cardinals rivalry, and puts Nashville in the NL Midwest, where their travel would be much tougher than if they were grouped with Atlanta and/or Cincinnati.

That said, this alignment encourages expansion to Portland or Las Vegas - two cities that I would favor over any other site west of Nashville.

What do you think of a potential MLB franchise in Nashville? Which city would you like to see awarded a 32nd team? Do you prefer eight divisions of four teams, or four divisions of eight teams?

 

Thanks for reading!



 

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Meet Joe Black

Here's a quick post concerning a belated birthday gift to myself. This will probably be the last addition to my 1956 Topps set for a while, at least until my COMC order arrives sometime in the next month or so (I hope.)

I had this Joe Black card on my eBay watchlist on the off chance that the $25 coupon code worked a second(third?) time. It didn't, and so I expected to keep an eye on it until I sold some things and filled up enough PayPal cash to grab it at $27.50. 

Then two things happened at once: I got so caught up in cleaning the house and sorting through my expendable cards/memorabilia that I didn't have the energy to list anything for sale. And of course the seller discounted this card to $25. I decided to just Buy It Now and pay myself back later ;-)

Joe Black was born and raised in nearby Plainfield, NJ. He played several years with the Baltimore Elite Giants of the Negro Leagues before earning a role as Brooklyn's top reliefer in 1952. Black started and won game 1 of the 1952 World Series, becoming the first African-American pitcher to win a Fall Classic contest. (Who said wins are meaningless?)

15 wins and 15 saves were enough to earn Black NL Rookie of the Year honors over another bullpen ace, Hoyt Wilhelm. Joe finished third in NL MVP voting behind Hank Sauer and Robin Roberts in a close vote. 

Unfortunately that was the peak of Black's career. His sharp decline shortly after that 1952 season resulted in his trade to Cincinnati, and his career ended in 1957.

Joe Black died at age 78 in 2002. A few years ago I noticed that his Baseball-Reference page lists his final resting place as Hillside Cemetery in Scotch Plains, NJ. I was working in Scotch Plains at the time, right across from a cemetery. I asked my father-in-law (who visited every cemetery in NJ researching his Civil War book) if the cemetery I walked by every day was Hillside. Pop told me it was not; Hillside was on the other side of town.

Black signed for Fleer and Topps prior to his passing. This 2001 Fleer Greats of the Game on-card auto is going on my wantlist:

Do you know of any major leaguers born or buried in your area?

Thanks for reading!



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For Promotional Purposes Only

After somehow saving $15 off a 1956 Topps single on eBay, I was officially granted a $25 off coupon. It came with a timeline of my 20 years (and countless dollars) spent on the bay. I was surprised to learn that my first purchase was made more than two years after I'd signed up. I was not surprised to learn that it was a Peter Worrell item.

A coupon code often feels like found money, and getting a second bite of the apple gave me the freedom to shop for set fillers and other things that I wouldn't have purchased at full price.

Burbank Sportscards offered free shipping for any purchase of $30 or more, and I picked up a handful of singles starting with this Sidney Crosby base card for my Exquisite set build:

Once my COMC order arrives I will need just four of the 30 cards in the current player portion of the set (I'm not going after the HOFers or RCs) This Crosby was reasonably priced at $15 but If I didn't have the coupon I'd have bought another 1956 Topps single with that money.

I picked up two more rookies for my 2014-15 Panini Prizm basketball set, bringing me down to just six needs. There are only two cheapies left, and only one veteran base card (Kevin Durant).

The All-Time Teams project has gone somewhat dormant as I focus on traditional set builds. Burbank seemed like the best place to address that with their 2 million+ singles on eBay alone.

 

 

It's tough to find a Ron Perranoski Dodgers card, just about all of them are high-numbered and cost far more than I'm willing to spend. Burbank listed this 1967 Topps single (as EX-MT) at $2. It's definitely not EX-MT, the centering would be terrible if it weren't miscut. I basically paid 35 cents for this card so I can't complain too much.

The Barnstormers aren't officially part of my All-Time teams collection yet but I've been looking to acquire a Jim McCormick card anyhow. This 2014 Goodwin Champions SP was a little pricey at $3.60; I probably wouldn't have ordered it if the coupon hadn't worked.

I didn't know this New Haven Ravens logo card existed until I saw it in Burbank's eBay store. I'd buy these for a dollar all day.

This Peter Worrell 1 of 1 has been on my radar for years. Burbank had it priced at $9.95 until recently. Worrell's two seasons with the AHL's Beast of New Haven were the reason I became a super collector. 

After years of adding two or fewer new cards to my Peter PC I've had quite a turnaround in 2020. This is my tenth new pickup so far, and it's only September. I'm not sure how these stamped 1 of 1 singles were distributed, or at which National: the 2002 show was in Chicago, the 2003 National was in Atlantic City :/

Overall I spent about eight bucks out of pocket for these eight singles. Here's another Connecticut card:

This Kemba Walker Teal Explosion parallel didn't come from Burbank (I purchased it on COMC for $1.29 last year) but it did inspire my first full-length post on The 1993. Hope you enjoy the new blog.

Thanks for reading!



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You're Invited...

I was sliding some set fillers into a binder last week, and then I paused. My binders are arranged chronologically, but I knew I'd have to acquire more 1993 Leaf singles and it seemed like a good idea to slot it in a more accessible area.

The top left cubby hole has 1992 and 1993 Fleer Ultra sets, along with 1993 Flair. I moved the 1993 Leaf binder into another cubby, next to.. a binder that contained complete sets of 1993 SP Baseball and Football.

I also had some set fillers for my 1993-94 Fleer Ultra Basketball set build, which go in a monster box because I don't have any more room for binders. I also have complete sets of 1993-94 Leaf, Fleer Ultra, and SP Hockey among many others.

I really like 1993 sports card sets.

In that moment I asked myself a couple of questions - potential topics to explore on this blog. And then I asked myself if I should start a second blog specifically focused on the year 1993.

As I pondered the possibilities (along with the time and energy I would need to nurture two blogs at once) I realized what day it was. Thursday. September 3.

I've spent all weekend cleaning my upstairs room and thinking of ideas for The 1993. There's only one post up so far, but we've got a background image courtesy of Sports Illustrated and a banner courtesy of GCRL Jim. I plan to post something on each blog once a week though The 1993 lends itself to shorter, more frequent posts.

I hope you will join me as I wax nostalgic for the early 1990s.

Thanks for reading!

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A little pitchy, dawg

I have no idea how, or why, but I was somehow able to use the eBay $25 off code twice. Kinda.

I was at my mom's house in Connecticut when I learned about the coupon code. Her desktop computer was displaced because she is in the process of moving out of the house she's lived in for nearly 40 years. And so I placed an order on eBay using the app on my daughter's tablet computer.

My order consisted of two graded cards from two different sellers, neither of which were over $25 individually, though they would have totaled over $40 combined.

When I got home the next day I went on my more familiar desktop computer and found that my purchase of the second card (a Kevin Lowe OPC single) was not successful. It was still available, and still on my watch list, but for some reason eBay did not allow me to purchase the card. However the purchase of the first card was successful:

This Randy Jackson is sharp, though the top left and bottom right corners aren't. Also there is a scratch on the PSA holder. The centering on both sides is really nice; I'm a little surprised it's not a 7. Jackson was an All-Star with the Cubs in 1954 and 1955. Chicago traded him to the Dodgers in December of '55, which explains that airbrushed 'B' on his cap.

It still confounds me that I was not able to purchase the Kevin Lowe card - but when I entered the coupon code I got $15 off the Jackson. And I was able to use the code again on another purchase (which should arrive next week.)

 

In other news, some trades came in the mail today. These are from TCDB user wbaker01:

I'm a looong way from completing the 1987 Topps football set (haven't even hit 10% yet) but it's nice to pick up some HOFers in exchange for hockey dupes. Speaking of hockey...

These eight singles from 1988-89 Topps helped me cross the 25% line. I now have 50 of 198, including Billy Smith's sunset card. Thankfully I don't need to acquire this awful airbrush job..

..because it's only in the O-Pee-Chee set.

 

I started a second blog, but before I post any content I need a banner image. If anyone would like to volunteer their Photoshop services (basically all I need is five images arranged around a short title) I can send a PWE of cards your way. Here's a preview:

 

 

Thanks for reading and enjoy the long Labor Day weekend!

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