Oxford University Press, 2000. Provides an inter-
pretative narrative on American history as re-
flected in the development of baseball.
Voigt, David Q.American Baseball.3 vols. University
Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1983.
Perhaps the most in-depth history of baseball
available.
Ward, Geoffrey C., and Ken Burns.Baseball: An Illus-
trated Histor y.New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994.
Accompanying text to the popular Ken Burns se-
ries on baseball. The final chapter concludes with
a discussion of baseball’s future.
Alar Lipping
See also Baseball realignment; Baseball strike of
1994; Griffey, Ken, Jr.; Home run race; McGwire,
Mark; Ripken, Cal, Jr.; Sosa, Sammy; Sports.
Baseball realignment
The Event Major League Baseball’s
reorganization of leagues and expansion of the
playoff system
Date 1994
In undergoing realignment, Major League Baseball broke
with tradition and laid the groundwork for future expan-
sion and interleague play.
By realigning the American League (AL) and Na-
tional League (NL), baseball officials ended the two-
division arrangement that had existed since 1969.
Under the new plan, each league divided its four-
teen teams into three divisions: Western, Eastern,
and the newly created Central Division. The three
division champions and the team with the next best
record (the wild-card team) advanced to a best-of-
five playoff series. The respective winners from each
league continued on to the AL and NL League
Championship Series, with the winners moving on
to the World Series. The plan also opened the door
for regular season interleague games, as officials
sought to exploit geographic rivalries (such as Mets-
Yankees, Cubs-White Sox). In addition, the plan cor-
rected some long-standing geographical oddities by
moving Atlanta from the Western Division to the
Eastern and St. Louis and the Chicago Cubs from
the Eastern to the Central Division.
The old alignment was as follows: AL Western—
California, Chicago White Sox, Kansas City, Minne-
sota, Oakland, Seattle, Texas; AL Eastern—Balti-
more, Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee, New
York Yankees, Toronto; NL Western—Atlanta, Cin-
cinnati, Colorado, Houston, Los Angeles Dodgers,
San Diego, San Francisco; NL Eastern—Chicago
Cubs, Florida, Montreal, New York Mets, Philadel-
phia, Pittsburgh, St. Louis.
The new alignment became the following: AL
West—California, Oakland, Seattle, Texas; AL Cen-
tral—Chicago White Sox, Cleveland, Kansas City,
Milwaukee, Minnesota; AL East—Baltimore, Bos-
ton, Detroit, New York Yankees, Toronto; NL West—
Colorado, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco;
NL Central—Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati, Houston,
Pittsburgh, St. Louis; NL East—Atlanta, Florida,
Montreal, New York Mets, Philadelphia.
In giving the game a facelift, baseball officials
hoped to counter the growing competition from
other major sports leagues, particularly professional
football and basketball. They also looked to avoid
the prospect of declining network television reve-
nues, which threatened to exacerbate the sport’s se-
rious financial problems. In doing so, officials
shunned the arguments of baseball traditionalists
who claimed that the owners were diminishing the
importance of the regular season in favor of more
playoffs simply for the purpose of creating addi-
tional sources of revenue. As it turned out, the plan
was not fully implemented in the 1994 season, since
the players’ strike on August 12 led to the cancella-
tion of the remainder of the season, including the
entire postseason.Impact Major League Baseball’s decision to re-
align leagues underscored the game’s growing de-
pendency on television broadcast revenues. The
plan followed in the footsteps of other major profes-
sional sports to restructure leagues and expand play-
off systems to meet the expense of burgeoning pay-
rolls.Further Reading
Chass, Murray. “Our Irrational Pastime: Division
Setup Still Not Set Up.”The New York Times, Janu-
ary 11, 1994, p. B10.
Costas, Bob.Fair Ball: A Fan’s Case for Baseball.New
York: Broadway Books. 2000.
William H. HoffmanSee also Baseball; Baseball strike of 1994; Sports.86 Baseball realignment The Nineties in America