Suffice to say, if anything, the 2011 season will go down as a memorable one. Even before the season started lots of controversial events occurred finding our beloved Rays in assumed dire straights. However, those events have been discussed at length on other sites by people much more eloquent than me, so far be it from me to bring them up again. Besides, we all know that we lost players x,y,z,1,2,3, yadayadayada, so yeah, pointless to bring that up again.
We’ve too had the pleasure of reading some lovely accounts from folks like Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal and Forbes Magazine’s Mike Ozanian regarding the controversy surrounding the issue of possibly contracting the Rays and A’s. More on that in a moment. We’ve also been told, time and again, by Stu Sternberg how we’re not good fans based on attendance numbers. I’ll discuss attendance and stadium issues at another time though.
There is one topic has quietly crept into the consciousness of baseball fans, and no Rays fans much to your chagrin, it’s not the potential trade of BJ Upton. It is, however, a topic that definitely effect the Rays. As the season progresses, the whispered rumors surrounding this topic get louder. That topic? Realignment. And from all accounts it seems as though realignment will be openly discussed during this winter’s CBA meetings. The question stands though; What effect might this have on the Rays?
First, it bears mentioning that if realignment is on the docket (and it seems as though it is) then the Ken Rosenthal’s and Mike Ozanian’s of the world can drop both the criticisms of small market teams and the hyperbolic arguments for contraction. In short, it would be counterintuitive to contract teams if Major League Baseball is indeed planning on realigning the American and National leagues. So how does Major League Baseball plan on realigning the leagues? Well, that answer is not so simple.
Since the league hasn’t officially put the issue of realignment out there, nor have they mentioned what route they might be taking, we can only base the hows and the effects of, on speculation…..
You can read the rest at: www.raysbaseball.co.
