As expected, the Atlantic League scrapped its traditional geographic divisional alignment Thursday.
But in a rather unexpected move, the league managed to pick new divisional names that only Lee Greenwood could appreciate.
We lost the North and South.
We gained Freedom and Liberty.
That’s right, the York Revolution will be playing in something called the Freedom Division next season.
Ah, God bless the Atlantic League.
If you can get past the "give me liberty" name selection, this was a good move.
The league needed to change its divisional setup in part because the emergence of expansion Southern Maryland. The bigger problem, however, rested with a conflict of interest — or at least the perception of one. Had the geographic divisions remained in place, the South Division would have consisted entirely of teams controlled by the same ownership group.
That would have been a very bad move. Please, the league just survived a public relations situation in which one man controlled the player acquisitions for four teams. It needed to avoided placing itself in a bad situation.
It's true that divisions mean little for scheduling purposes since teams will face off 20 times in a balanced 140-game schedule, the league did manage to keep geographic rivals within the same division. That means York and Lancaster could be fighting for a playoff spot. Or perhaps it could be Newark or Somerset.
FREEDOM
York
Lancaster
Newark
Somerset
LIBERTY
Bridgeport
Camden
Long Island
Southern Maryland
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