Interesting idea, but it will never happen, not with the DH only in the AL.

A less radical realignment would be to add two more teams to the American League and split up each league into 4 divisions of 4 teams each. Each team would have x number of games against division rivals, y number of games against the rest of the league and z number of games against a rotating division in the other league. So each team in a division plays the same schedule. This also eliminates the wild card, which means the only way to make the playoffs is to beat teams playing the same schedule as you.

The drawbacks are with small divisions, you'll probably get a sub .500 playoff team from time to time, and there doesn't seem to be a desire to add two more teams right now.

off the top of my head, no clue about how feasible it would be, but how about:

move one team from the NL to the AL, and make three 5-team divisions in each league. Play each team in your division 18 times (72 games), play the other teams in your league 6 times (60) and play each team in the other league twice (30). Adds up to 162 games, but you would have interleague games the whole season.

I like rondo's suggestion. If the NFL has AFC-NFC games throughout the season, why doesn't baseball have interleague games throughout the year? That makes more sense than the way it is now.

The disadvantage of having five-team divisions is that one team is left out at the end of the season. i like the idea of five six-team divisions, too. Not sure how you'd best pick the three wild cards -- most wins? strongest division?

I made a similar suggestion on a blog I started long ago and deleted. Travel would be vastly easier in a division with Bos-Nyy-Nym-Was-Bal-Phi. Then Pit-Cle-Cin-Atl-Fla-TB, Tor-Det-Chc-Chw-Stl-Mil, Hou-Tex-Min-KC-Col-Ari, and the six coastal teams. Think how many games teams would play in their own time zones.

Rocksfan and I are in total agreement. The plan that works the best and ruffles the least amount of feathers. And with the league awash in cash, foolish expansion can't be far off. I'm thinking Portand, Oregon and....wait for it...... Montreal.

More likely Charlotte, I'd think. I'd rather see four divisions of eight teams than eight divisions of four.

I'd also like to see the playoffs change: Divide the eight teams into two groups of four, and let those four play each other three times. Best team gets six home games, worst team gets three. The two round-robin champs play the World Series.

I'm with rocksfan for eight four team divisions. Adding two teams will keep the whiners in Congress happy for a while, and getting rid of the wild card will eliminate most of the situations where a team can benefit by not going all out after having clinched a playoff spot. The schedule would look like this:

--each team plays 22 games (11 home, 11 away) against their division rivals in the same league (66 games);

--each team plays 6 games (3 home, 3 away) against every team in its league outside its own division (72 games);

--each team plays 6 games (3 home, 3 away) against every team in the corresponding division in the other league (24 games);

--for a total of 162 games. Simple. The first league playoffs is seeded by record against non-division opponents in the same league, with a tie being decided by a coin flip. Again, simple.