Top Tweets for #Realignment

Three Crazy Ideas for MLB: Part 1 (No Divisions) What if we got rid of the division format and went back to two leagues with 15 teams in each? With new teams planned for Portland/Salt Lake City and Nashville/Charlotte, MLB could just add one each to both leagues and call it a day. I’m inspired by the recent pitch from owners that, in addition to reducing the season to 154 games, top-seeded teams would also get to pick their opponents. That feels like house rules when playing Monopoly, like the Luxury Tax going into the center of the board for whoever lands on Free Parking. Playing God sounds like fun. I’ve got some pretty out there ideas myself in case the owners would like to plumb my strategy brain. My day job is in social innovation, so I’m constantly finding new ways to do stuff. It’s kind of my thing. Over the next few days, I’m going to unpack a couple of these chestnuts inspired by the experience of the Pirates in 2026. Today we're starting with the idea that divisions are stupid and should be deleted from the game. A Quick Primer on the History of Divisions For the first half of baseball’s history, divisions didn’t exist. From 1901 through 1968, the AL and NL each crowned a champion based on regular season records, with the two winners meeting in the World Series. Simple stuff. That changed in 1969 when the game expanded to 24 teams, splitting each league into East and West divisions. Divisions made sense as winners of each would meet in a League Championship Series, with the winner advancing to the WS. But in the 1990s, MLB started screwing around. In 1994, the sport reorganized into three divisions per league, and then introduced the wild card system in 1995, expanding it further in 2012 and 2022. Interleague play started in 1997, making AL-NL matchups more commonplace. All of it undermined the need for divisions. So why do we still have them? Keeping It Simple With the expectation of two additional teams joining MLB at some point, there is talk of adopting a format akin to what is found in the NFL -- four divisions of four teams each. While it makes sense on paper, why is it even needed? For one thing, any future expansion would require another restructuring. A sport that believes it can continue growing in popularity should rethink how it organizes itself to allow for easy future expansion. The NBA has it figured out: two conferences divided between east and west, with 15 teams in each. If additional teams get added, you just split them between the two. It’s simple and actually expands the fans view of what is happening across the sport. Two Leagues, That’s It Of course, the difference in MLB is the historical importance of the two leagues. I don’t see anyone successfully breaking up the concept of the AL and NL given the branding and affinity for the structure. In a no-divisions model, teams would remain in their respective leagues, all competing for the same 6 postseason slots. The top two teams in each league would earn first-round byes, with the other four playing in the Wild Card Series. It’s the same number of playoff teams and the same basic postseason structure. Just gets rid of the divisions. I also like the idea of every team competing against 14 league opponents on equal footing. With a balanced schedule, there’s no reason a team with 85 wins should get preferential treatment over one with 92 simply because it happened to win a weaker division. That’s goofy. And when expansion comes, MLB can just add one team to each league without having to reorganize the whole sport. We could have 16 teams per league, then 17, then 18. No need to keep moving pieces around the chessboard every time another billionaire in a middle market city wants a franchise. The Bottom Line 📌 The Pirates found themselves in the toughest division in baseball this past season while teams in the AL West polished their schlongs. It isn’t a particularly fair system, and the upcoming realignment creates an opportunity to address it. It’s just one of several bold ideas for fixing this damned sport that I’m just freely giving away on X. I would normally charge $250/hour for this kind of inventive brilliance. What can I say, I’m just an incredibly generous guy. Get to know me. Happy Sunday, people. #letsgobucs

A lot of people think the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is just “more progressive Democrats.” It’s not. Founded in 1982, its core strategy has always been clear: enter the Democratic Party and gradually turn it socialist. They call this “realignment.” That’s how a small group grew into real power in city halls and Congress. Florida is taking the opposite approach. Starting this school year, students will learn the actual history of communism—its ideology, tactics, and the suffering it caused. If you care about progressive politics, you should know what the DSA really stands for. (In the comments👇)