Did Jayson Stark Steal My Realignment Plan?

Noted baseball writer Jayson Stark is creating quite a buzz with a piece in The Athletic about possible expansion and realignment for Major League Baseball. I consider it an excellent plan — because it is nearly the exact same one I came up with THREE YEARS AGO! Is Stark getting his ideas from your pal here at Blogging Mets?

Here is Stark’s realignment scheme (by the way, I did not and could not read Stark’s actual article; it is hidden behind The Athletic‘s paywall. I don’t know how that site will survive, considering they must be paying through the nose for high-priced writing talent while relying on people to pay for content, which history shows they hate to do. So I got this from a summary from SB Nation, which apparently has no problem paying):

NATIONAL LEAGUE

NL NORTHEAST
Nationals
Mets
Phillies
Pirates

NL MIDEAST
Cubs
Cardinals
Reds
Brewers

NL SOUTH
Braves
Marlins
Rays**
Charlotte*

NL WEST
Dodgers
Giants
Padres
Diamondbacks

AMERICAN LEAGUE

AL EAST
Yankees
Red Sox
Orioles
Blue Jays

AL MIDEAST
Indians
Twins
White Sox
Tigers

AL SOUTH
Astros
Rangers
Royals
Rockies**

AL WEST
Mariners
Portland*
A’s
Angels

(*- expansion team)
(**- changed league)

Compare that to what I wrote THREE YEARS AGO (which you can read for free, just for the record):

NATIONAL LEAGUE

EAST
Mets
Phillies
Nationals
Pirates

SOUTHEAST
Marlins
Braves
Rays (change leagues)
Charlotte (new team)

MIDWEST
Cardinals
Reds
Cubs
Brewers

WEST
Diamondbacks
Giants
Padres
Dodgers

AMERICAN LEAGUE

EAST
Yankees
Red sox
Orioles
Blue jays

SOUTHWEST
Rangers
Astros
Royals
Rockies (change leagues)

MIDWEST
Tigers
Indians
White Sox
Twins

WEST
Angels
A’s
Mariners
Las Vegas (new team)

Pretty similar, eh? The only difference is that he places a new team in Portland, I and put it in Las Vegas. But we both added a team in Charlotte, and we both had the Rays and Rockies switching leagues. And our divisions are identical. Did I mention I wrote mine THREE YEARS AGO?

Maybe this is an example of two great minds thinking alike. We both obviously had geography in mind when we made our divisions, so it is to be expected that we came up with the same alignment. It doesn’t take a genius to surmise that Chicago, Cincinnati, St. Louis and Milwaukee should be in the same division.

However, it does strike me as unlikely that it would be so exact. The Rockies and Rays changing leagues is kind of specific (although there really was no place in their current leagues for them, and they easily filled holes in the other leagues). So is Stark stealing from me? Well, I’d like to think so. However, my Google Analytics shows no evidence that anyone looked at my old post over the past month and a half. So I cannot prove anything nefarious is going on.

Even still, the evidence is indisputable that I came up with the brilliant idea long before Jayson Stark did. THREE YEARS before, to be exact, if I didn’t mention it. So please send his kudos my way.