The Astros will have a new owner and be playing baseball in a different league next season
By DAVID LEBLANC
Staff Writer
PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 22, 2011
On Wednesday November 16, associated press announced the sale of the Houston Astros. Jim Crane purchased the team for $615 million. However, with the purchase came the exception that the Astros must move from the National League Central to the American League West.
This move will take place in the 2013 season. With this traumatic move, each league would have fifteen teams. That very same day, MLB commissioner Bud Selig approved the change to the playoffs as well. The change extended each league an additional wild card. By doing so, it allows a total of ten out of the thirty teams to clinch a playoff berth.
Should the Astros have moved leagues? And if yes, why? People feel that by having the Astros in the American League, it will spark a triumphant rivalry between the Astros and the Texas Rangers.
Yet is that a good enough reason? After all, if that were the case could the Chicago Cubs switch leagues? What about the Oakland A’s? The list of teams that could have an interstate Rivalry extends much larger than just these teams. For that reason, the Astros should not have moved leagues.
What about the affect this move will have on interleague play? Interleague play is controversial enough without the help of moving teams. The Astros have played in the National league since their founding in 1965. They are used to batting with a pitcher.
Will this give the Astros an advantage over the other American league teams when it comes to interleague play? In fact, with their being an odd number of teams in each league now, there will always be a national league team playing an American league team.
So instead of only having interleague play once or twice a season, it will be almost every week. This move may be very controversial to you and I, however the players association does in fact favor the move.
As far as the playoffs are concerned, how much will it really change? Well with the introduction of two new wildcards, surprisingly there will be little to no change. The two wildcard teams in each division will square off for a one game playoff game. The winner of that game will then have the rights to the five game series with the team that holds the best record in that league.
With this, the teams will still compete for the best record and the highest seed. Luckily, the change from one wildcard to two wildcards will not change the baseball tradition known as “October.”
The Astros were founded in 1962 not 65.