St. Louis, Missouri was the westernmost Major League Baseball city from 1892 — when the "Perfectos" joined the National League — up until 1955 when the Athletics relocated from Philadelphia to Kansas City.
Baseball certainly lagged behind western population growth in America. As recently as 1952, half the National League could be found inside the states of New York and Pennsylvania. Because of its seclusion, and the onset of radio's vast reach, the "Gateway to the West" built up a gigantic geographic fan territory. Despite its small-market status, the results at the gate are still being felt today.
My self-imposed research assignment: What if two divisions (an East and West) had existed in both Leagues since the beginning of the 20th century?
If the long-standing MLB era of 16 total teams (1903-1961) had been broken into divisions, St. Louis would have played in the National League West — with Chicago, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh. Yes, you read that right. Post-World War II baseball was still treating its map in colonial ways; Western PA was the Wild West/frontier compared to its Atlantic epicenter. New York, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and Boston would have constituted this revisionist historian's NL East. Ironically, of that group, only the Phillies still reside where they used to call home.
Life would have carried on without any disruptions for half a century. Only when Boston moved to Milwaukee (1953) would any type of division juggling have occurred — Pittsburgh to the East and the Braves to the West.
Here is the shocker: Even when the Dodgers and Giants jumped to the Pacific Coast, for the start of the 1958 season, the Cardinals still would have been in a four-team NL West (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Milwaukee, St. Louis).
As expansion and further relocation entered the foray, this setup would have remained the case up and through 1969 — the year MLB divisions were formally created. The expansion Mets and Colt .45s (1962) wouldn't have tipped the geographic scales in any way to make St. Louis "East." The same is true of Milwaukee moving to Atlanta in 1966. Both events did nothing but cement the Cardinals were members of the National League crew "out west."
For much of the late '50s and early '60s, the battle in the Senior Circuit was waged between St. Louis, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. The NL pennant winner hailed from one of those cities eight times from 1959-1968. The Giants/Dodgers rivalry was clear and obvious, but those Giants/Cardinals and Dodgers/Cardinals affairs were just as deep-seeded and real.
Then, in 1969, the story took a turn toward lunacy. St. Louis and Chicago were shipped to the inaugural NL East Division, while Cincinnati and Atlanta were gobbled up by the West. Huh?
Back in 2019, Creg Stephenson wrote the best article on this topic for The Hardball Times — part of the FanGraphs family. The CliffsNotes version goes a little something like this: The American League owners had a conscious geographic plan for growth to 12 teams, split into two. Meanwhile, the anti-playoff National League owners got caught in an 11th-hour scramble to make sense of their new expanded map. After a compromise was struck on regular season length (162 games), the latter opted for the Big Ten's [failed] Legends and Leaders approach. Commissioner Spike Eckert scorned natural order, as well as several requests by clubs to either associate or disassociate with certain "neighbors." If you can't make everyone happy, make nobody happy.
If expansion was to come about, as it was, then this seemed to be the logical thing to do," St. Louis general manager Bing Devine told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "And although the Cardinals won’t play teams such as Los Angeles and San Francisco as much now, we won’t lose contact with them for good. In our division, we will have Chicago, and the rivalry between the Cubs and Cardinals has always been a good one… I recognize that from a rivalry standpoint, a division with St. Louis, Los Angeles, and San Francisco could have been the most interesting.
In my humble opinion, grouping in this manner was a monumental mistake. A National League West, comprised of Los Angeles, San Francisco, expansion San Diego, Houston, St. Louis, and Chicago would have made an impeccable division from 1969-1992. With the NL's expansion to 14 franchises in 1993, the quality would have only increased with the inclusion of Colorado.
Note: This arrangement would have left New York, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, expansion Montreal, Cincinnati, and Philadelphia in the East. Florida was their 1993 addition.
By my calculations — scanning National League standings for second- or third-place finishes behind "Eastern" teams — the Cardinals would have won an astonishing 20 National League West titles prior to 1969's divisional establishment. 1914, 1917, 1936, 1941, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1951, 1952 would have been added to the 12 pennants they won outright: 1926, 1928, 1930, 1931, 1934, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1946, 1964, 1967, and 1968.
Revise a little bit more history — "keeping" St. Louis in the West from 1969 through the creation of the Central (1994) — and the Cardinals would have added four more banners: 1971*, 1982, 1985, and 1987. In reality, the Cardinals won the NL East in 1982, 1985, and 1987. In a standings swap of St. Louis/Chicago for Atlanta/Cincinnati, the Cardinals' record in each of those years would have also won the West.
* In 1971, with equal 90-72 records, St. Louis and San Francisco would have played in an exciting "Winner Takes the West" Game 163. It would have been the first-ever division-title-deciding contest in history (fifth win-or-go-home tiebreaker overall). My assumption is that Bob Gibson or Steve Carlton would have outdueled Gaylord Perry or Juan Marichal.
With 1994, Major League Baseball found itself in uncharted waters. There was labor unrest (not new, but the first time it rose to the level of canceling a World Series), and a fresh new division/playoff structure. Though six divisions were implemented in '94, the awarding of baseball's first-ever Wild Cards (each League's best second-place club) and Central Division Champions would have to wait until October the following year.
St. Louis shifted to the NL Central and has lived in that division every year since. In those 27 full seasons, the Cardinals have won 12 more titles (1996, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2019, 2022).
All told, that equates to 36 Division Championships — using my pre-1969 rationale. That number is good, but is a distant second all-time to New York's [adjusted] 57 American League East crowns. For reference, the Highlanders/Yankees would have initially been in a foursome with the Senators (Washington), Americans/Red Sox (Boston), and Athletics (Philadelphia). This would have lasted up until 1953, when the the St. Louis Browns' relocated to Baltimore and rebranded as the Orioles. The move would have conveniently swapped an East for a West, as the A's relocated to Kansas City the following year.
When the Minnesota Twins and Los Angeles Angels created a ten-team American League in 1961, both would have gone to the West, forcing Cleveland to become the East's fifth member. American League executives clearly passed all geography classes in elementary school. Their institution of divisional play (in 1969) was right on the money. And they haven't looked back since.
The randomness surrounding alignment and the St. Louis, Chicago, Cincinnati, and Atlanta does present some wild opportunities, however. If Major League Baseball subscribes to my (2) 8-team division proposal, then some anomalies come into play. Because of their poorly placement in the East, the Cardinals and Cubs would have a chance to become the first team to have an East, Central, and West Division Championship on their resume. They would simply have to win the new NL West before the Reds snag the NL East — last one missing in their collection. What a race amongst rivals that would be.
Also in contention for that feat, under very different circumstances, is the Chicago White Sox. Now, Chicago has always been a swing city in professional sports. The Chicago Fire have practically skipped rope with Major League Soccer's geographic line: 1998-1999 Western Conference, 2000-2001 Central Division, 2002-present Eastern Conference.
The Bulls (NBA) currently play in the Eastern Conference, but they entered in 1966-67 as members of the West Division. It was 1980-81 before the lasting switch occurred, precipitated by a flurry of new franchises west of Chicago — Buffalo relocated to San Diego, New Orleans relocated to Utah, and Dallas came in as an expansion team over the course of three seasons.
Meanwhile, the Blackhawks/Black Hawks have played in the National Hockey League's Western Conference each and every season since its 1993-94 birth. True, there was a West Division from 1967-1974 — which didn't include Chicago straight away — but that doesn't really count. "West" was a catch-all designation for the six lumped-together expansion clubs, opposite the established "East." It had nothing to do with regions of North America. On top of that, four of those "Original Six" weren't charter members of anything. The label is a modern creation; a clever marketing trick to put some PR spin on contraction that occurred during WWII. Prior to the '40s, the divisional split was simply American and Canadian, ranging between 8-10 teams in a given year.
Everything in between was squirrely and geographically amorphic. As recently as 1981, the Hartford Whalers and the Los Angeles Kings played in the same division. Enough said.
Sidebar: What the hell were commissioners doing in the '70s and early '80s?! The Cincinnati Reds were busy dominating the National League West. The NFL's Atlanta Falcons called the NFC West home; Tampa Bay Buccaneers grouped in with four Upper Midwest teams (Chicago, Green Bay, Detroit, Minnesota). In the NBA, my Cavaliers had three divisional foes over 1,000 miles away from Cleveland — New Orleans, San Antonio, and Houston. And, as noted, the geographically-challenged NHL was up to things like placing the California Golden Seals in the Norris Division with Boston, Buffalo, and Toronto.
Let this be a lesson to modern executives/caretakers of professional sports leagues. Popularity rose for all these sports as some semblance of order was restored. And, to me (former Chief Operating Officer for a summer collegiate baseball league), the correlation begins and ends with organization in the table/standings. Better logistics lead to more efficient traveling. More efficient scheduling leads to lower operating costs and better competitive balance. Ultimately, that translates to a healthier league. Lay out a game board that's orderly and make the rules easy to understand and the casual fans will stick around much longer.
The NHL was a chaotic mess, loosely structured under placeless (and noncongruent) headings — Clarence Campbell Conference and Prince of Wales Conference — for nearly two decades. The divisions didn't add much clarity on the "Where?" of it all: geography-bucking Adams, Norris, Patrick, and Smythe Divisions.
In that, Chicago was an American League outpost in the West for a long time. Fun fact: They were the only AL team playing home games outside the Eastern Time Zone back in 1954. But, of course, that's ancient history; before the U.S. had population booms in places like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, San Diego, Dallas/Arlington, Oakland, Denver, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Portland, and Salt Lake City to support MLB clubs. Houston shifting from NL to AL (2013) was another wrinkle that affected the League's center of mass. Very few sportswriters from the 1940s would have believed Chicago could someday be on the right side of the nation's geographic East/West dividing line. Alas, here we are. The irony lies in the 1968 grievance appeal made by White Sox owner Arthur Allyn:
Allyn was enraged at both the idea of being in the AL West and having fewer games against the likes of Detroit and New York — teams he considered traditional rivals — as well as with later start times for games his team played on the West Coast. Shortly after Eckert announced the decision on the divisional alignments, Allyn called his own press conference in an adjacent room at Houston’s Shamrock Hilton Hotel. He told the Chicago Tribune, "We took a shellacking. We are strongly opposed to the makeup in our division. We plan to appeal to the commissioner and join our fellow clubs in the East."
If I had my way, Allyn's wish would come true, some 44 years after his death (59 years after selling the team in disgust over this singular decision).
How about those other current Central Division teams?
American League Expansion in 1969 was quite the spectacle, complete with Congressional threats to MLB's antitrust protections and kickback promises that bumped up previously-agreed-upon timelines. Seattle selecting the Pilots as their nickname seemed to be fateful in retrospect, rife with "failure to launch" and "ran out of runway" puns. And not much of it was their own fault. Ownership was rushed to take a product to market that didn't have all its kinked worked out, so one season is all baseball lasted in the Pacific Northwest (until a second attempt in 1977). The remnants of Seattle's carnage relocated to Milwaukee (vacated by the Braves four years prior) and called themselves the Brewers. The club continued to play in the American League West for two seasons, until they flipped to the AL East in 1972.
They are already the quirky record holders as representatives of four MLB divisions (AL West, AL East, AL Central, NL Central). Adding the National League West in 2029 would leave them one away from playing in all six to have ever existed! Oddly enough, a future switch to the NL East isn't completely absurd to propound. It's tough to definitively say 32 will be the end of MLB expansion in my lifetime. Should an Austin and Salt Lake City someday find their ways into the fray, then Milwaukee would suddenly fall east of the corresponding cut line. If the sport has taught us nothing since 1961, it is that all boundary lines are drawn in sand and not stone.
Four more AL West Championships for the Minnesota Twins would give them an impressive eight in both the West and Central. One more in the East would give the Detroit Tigers four and four. My Guardians would close the book on the AL Central Division as the most decorated team in its history (11 and hopefully counting). They'd also be granted another crack at notching their very first in the East.
Atlanta skipped right over the Central in 1994 and have dominated the NL East ever since — 16 titles in 27 years. They get to stay put.
I understand how this can feel like a slippery slope for some Cleveland folks older than me. Those East years were lean, to the point of mockery; quite literally the butt of the joke in Major League. With the creation of the AL Central, the tides did turn rapidly. The Tribe rolled out a new building (Jacobs Field), new uniforms, and a new roster of homegrown talent. Spanning eight glorious seasons (1994-2001), the perfect storm led to 718 victories (.585 win%), 455 consecutive sellouts, six AL Central titles, and two World Series berths. Even though a World Championship painfully eluded them, I don't know if any future era watching my beloved team will ever match that high.
To a superstitious bunch, "going back" runs the risk of going backwards. Then again, they're not the Indians anymore. Everything related to the club feels different and new as it is. Now would be the time; if we're down to the studs on an image overhaul, we might as well make a sweeping change to our divisional affiliations, too. Indians = Central, chapter closed. And boy was it a fun read. When I get nostalgic, I'll dust it off to remind myself how good the good times were. Guardians = East, yet to be written. Personally, I take on all shots at redemption and/or exorcising demons, so bring it on.
On the opposite side of the spectrum one can find the Pittsburgh Pirates. The franchise amassed nine NL East titles in their illustrious-to-lackluster history. As of publishing date, they are still zero-time winners of the NL Central... completely falling apart after their 20-8 start of the season. Moving to the East in 2029 would be a fitting way to eliminate their roughest era from the memory bank altogether. A clean slate and picking up the greatness where they left off — back-to-back NL East champions in 1991 and 1992, right before the massive overhaul. With the Mets coming to town this weekend, it would exciting to see this series become a high-stakes divisional showdown once again. That, and the Pirates/Phillies need to mean more than it currently does.
Similar story for the Kansas City Royals. They have only one AL Central Division title in 27 years. If feels safe saying they won't add another Central banner before the decade is out. Getting reabsorbed into the AL West would be a welcome opportunity; a chance to add to the six division titles won in the heyday of the club (1976-1985).
Oakland has been raked over the coals for months about their pace to be the worst team in MLB history. To their defense, they've also been mired in ownership and relocation dram every single day of the season. You could argue management has been purposely tanking the on-field product — a real-life plot of Major League — to lessen the blowback of skipping town. Yet, here we are: A Royals team that's now 18-50, percentage points behind the A's. Where is that incessant coverage? What is their excuse? Their rebuild and young core is going backwards. And now that downtown ballpark plan has stalled. Yikes.