Leapin' Logic

This used to be what kept me up at night:

It seemed ridiculous then, and it seems ridiculous now. If you're too young to remember, that was an actual proposal for a "radical realignment" to be implemented when the Devil Rays and Diamondbacks came into the league. One of the biggest roadblocks to radical realignment was Peter Magowan, so I thought we could include a thank-you note when we spraypaint "THIS TEAM MAKES BABIES CRY AND BLEED FROM MOST IF NOT ALL ORIFICES" on the side of AT&T Park's outer wall in July. That's what my first thought was, at least.

Just spitballin' here, but here's my guess as to what the best teams in the NL West would have been under the new alignment:

Obviously, this is all a bunch if hypothetical nonsense, as every team would have made different roster decisions if realignment took place, but stay with me. The Giants still would have been division winners in 2000 and 2003.

In 2000, the NL playoff teams would have been the Giants and the White Sox, with the A's and Cardinals as the wild cards. No Al Leiter. No Bobby Jones. No Timo F. Perez.

In 2003, the NL playoff teams would have been the Giants and the Twins, with the A's and the Cubs as the wild cards. No Ivan Rodriguez. No Derrek Lee. No Brad F. Penny.

The Giants would have won the World Series in one of those seasons.

Ergo, Peter Magowan is the reason the Giants didn't win a World Series during the tenure of Barry Bonds. Well, the whole reluctance to bump up payroll earlier in the Giants' successful run didn't help. Sidney Ponson and Mark Gardner didn't help, either. But the realignment thing for sure. It's, like, mathematically provable.

If anyone knows Scott Bakula's home number, please send me an e-mail.