Some ideas for reconfiguring Major League Baseball

MAJOR LEAGUE Baseball has been using two sets of rules since the American League adopted the designated-hitter rule at the winter meetings in 1973.

National League pitchers hit, American League pitchers sit. The use of nine hitters vs. eight plus a pitcher has changed forever what was once a level playing field.

Picture the NFC playing current rules and the AFC playing three-down Canadian Football League rules. Or one NBA conference having a four-point field goal and the other conference outlawing the three-pointer.

But the rules are not MLB's only anomaly.

The National League has 16 teams, the American League 14, including a weird West Division with just four teams, one less than the East and Central - not to be confused with the NL Central, which has six, one more than the East and West.

And there are geographical problems, as well. In 1994, the Phillies' torrid rivalry with the Pittsburgh Pirates, during their emergence as a power in the mid-1970s, came to an end. The Pirates were moved to the NL Central and replaced in the East by the Atlanta Braves, who play in a city that is farther west than Cleveland.

And the Texas Rangers are stuck in the AL West, where their three divisional rivals all are more than 1,000 air miles away. Seattle is 1,681 air miles from Arlington, Texas, and more than 2,000 miles by auto. By October, the Rangers will have played a month of games in Oakland, Anaheim and Seattle.

But it's not exactly a day at the rodeo for the A's, Angels and Mariners, who must play a like number of games in Arlington. Imagine the shock of being in coolish Seattle one night and sweltering Arlington the next. And making three trips there.

The Lords of Baseball are negotiating a new basic agreement with their millionaire serfs. Realignment is a big-ticket item. It appears to be something both sides want and desperately need.

The devil, as always, is in the details. Which teams will be delivered from one desert island to another in the name of geographical logic and competitive balance? It is a tough map to redraw.

The first part is easy: Create two 15-team leagues.

Then you can have two leagues with three five-team divisions. That settles the balance issue, but does little to solve the more pressing issue of geographical and competitive imbalance.

There is still a team or teams that will be screwed by geography.