Scott Carson

Stats man Scott Carson is now in his 17th season as "third man in the booth" during Blue Jays telecasts. Watch for his columns regularly on Sportsnet.ca.

The time has come for Bud Selig to re-work the divisions and add a couple of expansion teams.

I can't say that I've neither enjoyed nor loathed the annual voyage into interleague. After 17 seasons in the American League, the hotels and cities are all quite similar to me. That's why a chance to go to places like Washington, Pittsburgh or Phoenix sparks my interest. Three trips a summer to Baltimore, Boston, New York and St. Petersburg tends to do that.

Having said that, though, I do believe that the time has come for a change of the scheduling and rules when the two leagues cross over. In it's present form, the inequalities of the individual schedules of each teams, especially in regards to Wild Card races, should be addressed in the near future. Is it fair that as the Blue Jays try to claw their way back to the post-season that they have to play the Red Sox, Rays and Yankees 54 times - or one-third of their schedule - while teams outside of the A.L. East that might also be battling for the Wild Card spot would play those same teams no more than nine times? Is it fair that the American League teams are forced to shelve the designated hitter when they visit National League parks?

I think not on both counts. Unfortunately, any change, no matter how radical, would require Commissioner 'Bud' Selig to get involved and at his advanced age, setting up his PVR has put enough on his plate.

So with all this in mind, here is what I would suggest to remove the inequities that currently exist:

1. Go back to a completely balanced schedule, including interleague. This would mean, using the Blue Jays as the example, that they would face all other A.L. teams nine times (two series at home/one on the road, or vice versa) for a total of 117 games. If Interleague is to continue then it should be every team playing every other team in a series for a total of 48 games. Now I realize that adds up to 165 games so some tweaking would be needed to remove the three extra games, but you get the drift.

2. Either do away with the designated hitter altogether or have the National League embrace the rule. Personally, I've always liked the DH. If I was a paying customer, I'm not sure I'd get excited about watching a pitcher at the plate flailing away or dropping a sacrifice bunt, but to each his own. I will be expecting some e-mail from you purists or lovers of the mystical "double-switch".

3. Go back to just two divisions in each league, East and West. With an equal number of teams being needed for this to work, this would mean expanding by two more teams to give all divisions eight teams each. This would allow the four division winners to qualify and a pair of Wild Card teams in each league base upon the top records regardless of division. And my re-aligning of the divisions would go as follows:

Radical ideas for sure, and for a sport that doesn't embrace change too often, I can only dream that with a little tweaking the playing field could be a lot more even.

(Note: As you can see, I've added Las Vegas and Portland as expansion teams, and shifted the Florida Marlins into the A.L. East to balance out the divisions. These are just my thoughts and I'm providing no insight into something I've heard in my travels. I personally think that Las Vegas is long overdue to join the professional ranks in all leagues. I put the fears of organized crime getting their hooks into players and altering the outcome of games on the same level as the 'Reefer Madness' propaganda that still prevails from the Prohibition years.)

REALITY BITES

Did anyone really expect the Jays to go into Fenway with their 3-4-5 starters - two of them greener than spring bud - and not believe that getting swept wasn't a possibility? Their best chance to win was the opener with the suddenly reliable Brian Tallet against knuckleballer Tim Wakefield. The key was Kevin Youkilis was playing in a rehab game, and David Ortiz was locked in the type of slump that was starting to make people wonder if the lovable 'Papi' was coming to the end of the line. But the Jays fell behind early - as they did in all three games - lost a tight 2-1 contest. Game two saw Brett Cecil's bubble fully burst, serving up five big flies - four in a span of eight hitters as he couldn't escape the fifth - and joining a long list of rookies that took a whipping in their Fenway debut. Youkilis' return triggered Ortiz and everyone else just fell into line for Boston's offense. Not that the Jays didn't have their own chances. They clipped Red Sox starter Brad Penny and four relievers for 14 hits, but left 11 of them stranded thanks to going just 2 for 12 with runners in scoring position. More of the same in the finale, eight of the 21 batters that rookie Robert, Rob, Bobby Ray faced reached, the Jays put up another 11 hits, but left 12 more stranded and were 1 for 7 RISP (finishing 4 for 24 RISP in the series). As the broadcasters on radio and TV so aptly predicted after the Jays swept a four-game series against the lowly White Sox, "No matter what, the Blue Jays will leave Fenway in first place". Nice read there Kreskin. But even though they got swept, lessons were learned and will, hopefully, be applied later in the year when meetings between these two teams start carrying a lot more weight.

INTERESTING TO NOTE, TOMMY

With the return to Interleague I have to refresh myself for the TV assignment and it's interesting to note that the top three names on the all-time interleague home run list - Jim Thome, Junior Griffey and Carlos Delgado - have never been linked to the on-going drug scandal in Major League Baseball, but the rest of the top ten list reads like a who's-who of admitted or suspected drug cheats: #4 Manny Ramirez, #5 Barry Bonds, #7 Rafael Palmeiro, #8 Sammy Sosa, #9 Jason Giambi and tied for #10 Alex Rodriguez. Interleague started in 1997 which by recollection coincides with the arrival of performance-enhancing drug use. Kind of makes you wonder, doesn't it?