Last bats: Realignment's races will be different

I'm watching the Dodgers trying to stay in the National League West race with less than 1 1/2 games to go when I realize it's not going to be this way next year. The lords of the realm are going to have some sort of realignment plan in place before the next season starts. Baseball is a safe haven for nostalgia. After all, there's no harm done by remembering "the good old days" of a sport. That kind of nostalgia doesn't get in the way of living in the present. However, change has come mighty quick in recent years. Divisional realignment created the wild-card spot in the playoffs. This year, interleague play was added to the regular season. Next year, it'll be a whole new ball of wax with at least a few teams switching leagues. The divisions will be different, although some rivalries will be preserved and new ones created. The sad part about it is that -- duh! -- the changes will be made not to improve the game, but to improve business. The lords of the realm virtually forced realignment to happen when they assigned the expansion Tampa Bay Devil Rays to the American League West division. Come on! Everybody knows that couldn't stand -- having all the Rays' divisional opponents a day's flight away. I wouldn't want to have that team's jet-fuel bills. Good stories in baseball? This year, however, there's plenty else in the game to give fans the excitement that seasons long past brought. Larry Walker and Tony Gwynn both chased a .400 batting average for a minute. They didn't make it, but few rooted against them. People felt good about these guys the way they do about the big names of old. Unlike the way they feel about, say, Tony Philips. Then, there was the war of attrition in the chase after Roger Maris' record. In the past few weeks, the field shook down to Mark McGwire and Ken Griffey Jr. It doesn't seem like either will make it, but when was the last time two guys hit 50 home run in a season? Couldn't be that Mantle-Maris year, could it? Even if Junior wears his hat backwards, he's got a low-key air that keeps him on the good-guy side most of the time. McGwire says he signed his huge contract with St. Louis only after his son, who lives in southern California, said it was OK. It's not the same as Lou Gehrig saying he's the luckiest man alive, but it's a statement that has a similar kind of vulnerability and emotion behind it. Definitely not what you'd expect from a guy who hits rocket blasts almost every day. Speaking of rockets, how about Roger Clemens? The Red Sox have to rue the day they let this fabulous pitcher go, with the hint that he was washed up. Not hardly. There were other good stories in this year before realignment. For instance, people say that pitching's diluted. However, in the year when two hitters chased .400 and another two chased Maris, eight pitchers had a shot at winning 20 games as late as September 1. Enough for instances, though. It's fun to realize that even thought baseball deserves the licking it gets for having the most spoiled athletes in pro sports and possibly the most medieval owners, there were too many good baseball stories this year to mention here. What's most likely to be remembered next year is not the realignment, but the reason for the realignment. Two new teams coming aboard in Florida and Arizona. The fans in those markets will get big-league ball for the first time and cheer their good guys. They won't be cheering the owners. Of course, the owners in their counting houses won't be able to hear the cheers anyhow. Copyright © 1997, Salvatore Caputo