(TSR) - Professional sports and the shame of it. Unfortunately, baseball is a part of it all as well. Maybe shame isn’t the correct word but for now, it fits. Some of the business decisions in baseball just don’t make any sense, and haven’t for a long time.

We’ve seen NFL teams leaving cities, only to see that city receive a new team within a few years of being abandoned. So why did they leave in the first place?

There always seems to be this great explosion when business people get their hands inside the sports and entertainment industry, which have proven frustrating to the fans, to say the least.

Obvious examples are the well publicized doings of George Steinbrenner of the New York Yankees and Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys, or Art Modell of the Browns…er, Colts, just to name a few. We won’t even go into Hollywood and their rehashed scripts.

The obvious target for criticism is the plight, or flight, of the Montreal Expos. They not only finished in last place with 95 games lost but the Expos were a whopping 29 games out of first place in 2004. And that’s a comeback from earlier in the season!

It’s anyone’s guess as to what, or who, could have made their situation any better. But it’s safe to say that there could have been some better insight as to what Montreal needed for Montreal.

Don Macpherson of the Montreal Gazette, wrote back in September on the city not giving in and building a new ball park with public funds.

”On behalf of fans everywhere disillusioned by the intrusion of business into the sports pages and the loud squabbling of greedy owners and players over millions, we made a statement by telling the greedheads to take their business elsewhere.”

Yes, big business is hard to figure sometimes. Why would Major League Baseball want to slide a third team into the nation’s capital where they’ve failed twice before?

Jack Todd, also of the Gazette wrote: “The record will show that the death of the Expos did not have to be.

”It was not that long ago that baseball was a vibrant, thrilling presence in Montreal. It took years of bad management, neglect and worse from the commissioner’s office…”

Several Montreal residents interviewed were not overly passionate about the situation but did express sadness at the Expos departure. It was a shrug of the shoulder reaction of years of being worn down by the league and organizational decisions.

What apparently was important to MLB was that they keep one American League and one National League team in Canada and Florida.

This kept Toronto and the Expos apart from each other and the same with the Tampa Bay and Florida, as opposed to each group being in the same division with each other and creating excitement through rivalries by playing each other approximately 18 times a year.

Lets look at two of the three divisions in the National League. In the East, it’s the Phillies, Marlins, Mets, Braves and Expos. Not exactly a cohesive unit. In the Central, there are the Cardinals, Cubs, Reds, Brewers, Astros and Pirates.

Even when looked at separately, these two divisions have the intimacy of a 16-team Big East Conference.

Now lets put the teams where they belong. The East: Cubs, Cardinals, Pirates, Phillies and Mets back together again. For the new Central division it should be the Marlins, Devil Rays, Braves, Astros and Reds.

The Brewers could be placed in either division depending on the better fit, even though, geographically, they seem out of place for a National League team.

And those loveable Expos? Gee, why not the American League East where the rest of the teams they’re already close to, are located?

No, that would make way too much sense. And, this is a big “and,” they could have had a rivalry with Toronto. Now there’s an idea. One can almost hear that guy in the beer commercial yelling, “Brilliant!”

Also, there’s an important fact that should be mentioned and that is that the two Canadian cities already have a legendary rivalry in hockey.

Isn’t there just the remotest possibility that it might have worked in baseball too? Why couldn’t there have been one more last-ditch effort to keep the Expos in Montreal?

A spokesperson for MLB said over the summer, that there had been no discussion on realignment, which would have to be approved by the owners and by the owners of the particular teams themselves.

The spokesperson did say that MLB wished to continue growing domestically and internationally.

Well, doesn’t that include Canada and Florida? Just because MLB is already there doesn’t mean that the game can’t grow in any new directions.

Along with these decisions and the fact that players change teams like they change their underwear, it’s no wonder why Major League baseball has fallen out of favor with a good many of the general public.

Passion has been replaced by decisions of cold steel; like a morning mist burned out by a rising sun. Sadly, baseball is no rising sun and hasn’t been since the big strike that wiped out the World Series back in ’94.

Sure, some would like us to believe that baseball made this big comeback when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were having this home run lovefest back in 1998.

The truth is there was nothing else to root for in baseball because every race, except for the American League West’s second place team of three games out, had anything going for itself.

The final standings for 1998 read every other division in both leagues had a second place team no closer than 9games. Two division winners finished with a 22 and 18 games lead, respectively.

So what’s the point? Baseball could still use an influx of excitement with some gutsy decisions and a little innovative thinking.

As far as baseball in the state of Florida is concerned, Rick Vaughn, Vice President of public relations for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, confirmed via email the theory that what’s important for Major League baseball, is that there be one American League team and one National League team in Canada and Florida and that they support MLB.

To be fair, Vaughn and a separate spokesperson through telephone contact for the Devil Rays, both stated that there was no interest on the part of Tampa Bay’s organization to make such a switch to the National League and have a rivalry with the Marlins.

The question is why would you not want to be in the same league, and division, with a team just across the state that you know would generate more interest and a rivalry? Are the annual Yankee visits that important?

There are, at least two things that people love: Underdogs and they LOVE rivalries. It would seem to make more sense that the common fan, who might not sit there and watch a team like Montreal for anything more than a passing of the dial, might stick around a little longer if they were playing Toronto.

Finally, while we’re at it, lets change the Florida name to Miami and go with the colors of the Dolphins and Hurricanes. They’re not the only team in Florida anymore. Besides, Miami Marlins has a sexier ring to it.

There, we’ve fixed a little corner of the world of baseball. Is anybody listening?

Filed by J.D. Long