In May of 2021, I purchased MLB: The Show 21. It was the first year it was available on any Xbox system and I got it because of all the hype around it on social media, especially with the new cross-play capabilities and the expansion of the franchise. I wasn’t a super big baseball fan at the time, but the more I played it, the more I understood the nuances of the game, and it translated to me being able to watch full games without getting lost or bored by the 4th inning. By July, I was watching any nationally televised games. By August, I had picked a favorite team, the San Diego Padres, thanks largely to the electric play of young superstar Fernando Tatis, Jr., All-Star slugger Manny Machado, and up-and-comer Jake Cronenworth.
It’s been a bit over a year since that, and my fandom has grown exponentially. I found some of my dad’s old baseball cards and was given two large tins of cards a few months later from my grandparents. I have invested countless hours into sorting them and getting them situated in binders, which I still haven’t finished. This season, I have been streaming any game that I can, regardless of the teams playing. I joined a fantasy baseball league, I started tweeting about games that I was watching, and am heavily invested in the flagship MLB video game series, The Show. I have become a legit fan of baseball.
Within any fandom, there is always talk about hypotheticals. “What if Minnesota drafted Steph Curry?” “What if Ash was actually in a coma for the entirety of the Pokémon animated series?” “Who would win in a fistfight with no extra gear: Arthur Morgan from Red Dead Redemption 2 or Batman?” It is what we as fans of media love to do. We love to speculate and debate. We love to hypothesize. We love to make up stories about certain people or ideas. Among sports fandoms, especially baseball and basketball, one of the most realistic hypotheticals we can come up with is based on league expansion. I see it all the time on NBA Twitter, sometimes even reaching the point of someone creating their team nickname, logo, and jersey design.
MLB has had 30 teams since 1998, and the current divisional groupings have been around since the Houston Astros moved from the NL Central to the AL West in 2013, evening out all six divisions with five teams apiece. The ideal expansion would be adding one team to each league and creating four divisions with four teams in each league. One of the major discussions surrounding expansion is the relocation of certain teams, specifically the Tampa Bay Rays and the Oakland Athletics. Although both of those relocations are pretty feasible and likely to happen soon, in my hypothetical situations, I’m going to pretend that everything is perfect within those franchises and that the relationship between the fans and ownership is all fine and dandy.
I have come up with two scenarios for expansion. Both introduce two new teams, one for each league, and there is a bit of league shifting as well. I came up with four potential teams—two for each scenario—as well as nicknames for each team (and the reason behind their names). I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out how each potential city would fit into realignment, as well as the best way to pair the teams for the best possible divisional fits. For both scenarios, the divisions for both leagues will be North, South, East, and West. There will be a total of eight divisions with four teams apiece. Both scenarios will also have two teams changing leagues, one from the NL and one from the AL. Alright, let’s get into this.
Scenario #1: Canadian Baseball Spreads West
In this first scenario, the selected expansion cities are Vancouver, British Columbia, and New Orleans, Louisiana. Vancouver would enter the American League, and New Orleans would enter the National League. The Arizona Diamondbacks would move to the AL, and the Tampa Bay Rays would move to the NL.
Vancouver Spirit Bears
I decided to name Vancouver the Spirit Bears. A spirit bear, or a white Kermode bear, is a type of black bear that has a very distinctive white coat. They are only found in the Great Bear Rainforest in British Columbia, the only remaining temperate rainforest in the world. They have an important role in eco-tourism in British Columbia, as they are one of the rarest subspecies of bears in the world. Because they are only found in abundance in British Columbia, they were given the title of the official mammal of the province. As one of the richest Canadians and a prominent owner of sports teams, Joe Tsai would be the founding owner of the Spirit Bears. Their mascot would be named Francis the Spirit Bear, after Francis Kermode, the namesake of the bears. The official team colors will be cream, for the spirit bears’ creamy white coat, and forest green, to represent the Great Bear Rainforest.
New Orleans Shadowmen
The nickname that I chose to give New Orleans was the Shadowmen. New Orleans has an extensive history of voodoo. Dating back to the late 18th century, voodoo practice exploded in New Orleans after Haitian followers fled during the slave revolt in 1791. Major voodoo figures grew to political and spiritual power in the city during the 1800s. Voodoo involves the use of witch doctors, sometimes dubbed “shadowmen.” The shadowmen tend to deal with spirits and other supernatural beings whenever they are appointed to do so. Gayle Benson and the Benson family would own the Shadowmen, as they have ownership over the two other NOLA major sports franchises (the Saints and the Pelicans). Their mascot would be a zombie/skeleton named Krimmy, named after the god Baron Kriminel, who is seen as the “custodian of the graveyard.” The official team colors will be purple, jade, and gold to go along with the colors of Mardi Gras, the biggest event in New Orleans every year.
League Realignment
In the AL, the West Division would consist of the Los Angeles Angels, the Oakland Athletics, the Seattle Mariners, and the Vancouver Spirit Bears. I knew from the beginning that I would want Seattle and Vancouver to be divisional rivals, so this placement was a no-brainer for me. The South Division would consist of the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Houston Astros, the Kansas City Royals, and the Texas Rangers. Arizona seemed like the best possible team to be the fourth team in the South, and although Kansas City isn’t necessarily in the South, it is the southernmost remaining AL team, and it is the closest to the rest of the teams in the South Division. The North Division would consist of the Chicago White Sox, the Cleveland Guardians, the Detroit Tigers, and the Minnesota Twins. The East Division would consist of the Baltimore Orioles, the Boston Red Sox, the New York Yankees, and the Toronto Blue Jays. The North and the East seemed like the easiest divisions to figure out considering that they are already in the same division, and they were the last remaining in my reconfiguration.
In the NL, the West Division would consist of the Colorado Rockies, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the San Diego Padres, and the San Francisco Giants. This was another super easy division to configure, considering it’s the same NL West, just without the D-Backs. The South Division would consist of the Atlanta Braves, the Miami Marlins, the New Orleans Shadowmen, and the Tampa Bay Rays. This division was the one that helped me figure out exactly how it should divide the divisions. I knew that I wanted these four teams to be in the same division, but I didn’t know how to determine their location (could be East, South, Southeast, or Gulf Coast). The North Division would consist of the Chicago Cubs, the Cincinnati Reds, the Milwaukee Brewers, and the St. Louis Cardinals. The history with these teams was too much to split them up. The East Division would consist of the New York Mets, the Philadelphia Phillies, the Pittsburgh Pirates, and the Washington Nationals. The reason that I picked the Pirates to join the East was simply that they were farther east than any other former NL Central teams.
American League
North | CWS | CLE | DET | MIN |
South | ARI | KC | HOU | TEX |
East | BAL | BOS | NYY | TOR |
West | LAA | OAK | SEA | VAN |
National League
North | CHC | CIN | MIL | STL |
South | ATL | MIA | NO | TB |
East | NYM | PHI | PIT | WAS |
West | COL | LAD | SD | SF |
Scenario #2: Florida Gets their Third Team in 30 Years
In this second scenario, the selected expansion cities are Orlando, Florida, and Charlotte, North Carolina. Orlando would enter the American League and Carolina would enter the National League. The Colorado Rockies would move to the AL, and the Tampa Bay Rays would move to the NL.
Orlando Dragons
For Orlando, I decided to name them the Dragons. Orlando has a reputation for being a magical place, hosting both Walt Disney World Resort, dubbed the most magical place on Earth, as well as Universal Studios Resort, home of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. In 1989, the NBA franchise in Orlando went along with this idea, naming themselves the Magic. The Dragons would be owned by RDV Sports, Inc., who also own the Magic. Their mascot would be named Fluff the Magic Dragon, first cousin to the Magic’s mascot Stuff the Magic Dragon (which further connects the Magic and the Dragons). The official team colors will be blue, white, and goldenrod to go along with the colors on the Flag of Orlando.
Carolina Flyers
The nickname that I picked for Carolina is the Flyers. North Carolina has a history of flying. It has the longest history of modern flying in the entire world as the Wright Brothers’ l flight location was Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The name of the first plane was the 1903 Wright Flyer, which I decided will be the namesake of the team. I also decided that the team should cover the entirety of North Carolina, not just Charlotte, in the same spirit as the Rockies and the D-Backs. The Flyers would be co-owned by Michael Jordan and Larry Miller, the chairman of the Michael Jordan brand at Nike. They would have two mascots, Orville and Wilbur, named after the Wright Brothers, and they would be humanoid mascots, much like the Racing Presidents of the Washington Nationals. The official team colors will be sky blue, black, and pastel violet to go with the other professional sports teams in Charlotte.
League Realignment
In the AL, the West Division would consist of the Colorado Rockies, the Los Angeles Angels, the Oakland Athletics, and the Seattle Mariners. In this scenario, it made more sense for the Rockies to move to the AL instead of the D-Backs. The South Division would consist of the Houston Astros, the Kansas City Royals, the Orlando Dragons, and the Texas Rangers. This is why Colorado moving to the AL made more sense because Arizona moving wouldn’t have fit for the AL South. The North Division would consist of the Chicago White Sox, the Cleveland Guardians, the Detroit Tigers, and the Minnesota Twins. The East Division would consist of the Baltimore Orioles, the Boston Red Sox, the New York Yankees, and the Toronto Blue Jays. The North and the East have the same alignment as they did in the first scenario. They are both easy to keep similar to their current alignment because they were already geographically aligned very well.
In the NL, the West Division would consist of the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the San Diego Padres, and the San Francisco Giants. Much like in the first scenario, it is the same as the current NL West, just with the D-Backs instead of the Rockies. The South Division would consist of the Atlanta Braves, the Carolina Flyers, the Miami Marlins, and the Tampa Bay Rays. Either Orlando or Carolina could have been in either South Division, but it made more sense to have the Flyers in the NL so that there wouldn’t be three Florida teams in the same division. The North Division would consist of the Chicago Cubs, the Cincinnati Reds, the Milwaukee Brewers, and the St. Louis Cardinals. The East Division would consist of the New York Mets, the Philadelphia Phillies, the Pittsburgh Pirates, and the Washington Nationals. Much like in the AL, the North and the East have the same alignment as they did in the first scenario. Again, their geography worked out very well, allowing them to stay very similar to the current alignment.
American League
North | CWS | CLE | DET | MIN |
South | KC | HOU | ORL | TEX |
East | BAL | BOS | NYY | TOR |
West | COL | LAA | OAK | SEA |
National League
North | CHC | CIN | MIL | STL |
South | ATL | CAR | MIA | TB |
East | NYM | PHI | PIT | WAS |
West | ARI | LAD | SD | SF |
While I was brainstorming this, I thought of many cities that could have a potential team, and obviously, only four of them made the cut. Here is a list of teams that just missed it, whether from geographical issues or just because I thought of a better team two minutes later:
Indianapolis Engineers
Omaha Twisters
Mexico City Serpientes
Honolulu Warriors
Las Vegas Outlaws
(New) Montreal Expos
Your memory will live infinitely until I forget about you.
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