An idea so crazy it just might work.


Willie Calhoun hits his second of two home runs to tie the game at 4-4.

Games like last night against teams like the Orioles bring up ideas like this one.

Maybe baseball should reorganize to where the teams that declare at the beginning of each season that they aren’t trying to put out a competitive team are placed in a separate division and they play each other all season long, and nobody else.

The Rangers would play a full schedule of games against only teams like the Orioles, the Tigers, the Mariners and Royals. Rangers fans could see them win 150 games. How cool would that be? 

Of course, those teams don’t get a shot at post-season play. But they never had a shot anyway. 

It’s more like a developmental division. You play teams that are like you. Not in it to win it but in it to build for some future year when they would declare themselves ready to be in the competitive division. By that time, other teams would be giving up and move down to the developmental division. 

Fans of great baseball could watch a season full of games between great teams like the Astros, Yankees, Rays, Red Sox, Athletics, Twins, and Indians. The best of the best. It would be like an entire season of playoffs even before the playoff.

Fans of the white flag teams could watch their teams win a lot more games, or at least have the chance to win games, against like-minded just-slap-a-team-on-the-field teams. 

We’d see more games where the Rangers get more hits than strikeouts. More games where guys in slumps are no longer in slumps. More games where Choo gets two hits. Andrus gets two hits. Calhoun gets two home runs. Odor might even get to .200 in this format.

We’d see more fun games like last night where they are up, fall behind, claw back ahead, lose the lead, then go ahead late in the game.

Those are great games for fans to watch. What fan wouldn’t want more games like that?

Crazier ideas have happened.

*****

TODAY’S GAME:

Jonathan Herandez (1-0, 1.59) vs. Aaron Brooks (4-7, 5.81)

Game time: 6:05