MLB Showdown Obsession

 300? Holy cow! When the Showdown Bot was released I never thought I'd be able to hold attention for this long on such a project, but baseball has such a wealth of history that I have yet to run short on inspiration. Thus far, I've gotten a bit carried away, seeking to make dozens of team sets , reviewing entire careers , seeking to highlight every Hall of Famer and other such topics all while going from the occasional update to at least once a week. I've learned quite a bit of baseball history in the process and gotten to flex some trivia I'm aware of as well. Now this ambitious project of mine has reached 300 posts, as I take a break from other themes to crack open my autograph book again to show off the players I've had the honor of meeting face to face. ( 100 and 200 specials) Most of the players I've received an autograph from usually come with an uneventful story. Not so with Alfonso Soriano. Back during the Yankees dynasty, Darryl Strawberry was reh...

 Recently, whispers of division relocation in baseball have become a more out loud conversation. Some examples I've seen have suggested major shifts for teams or the altogether destruction of the AL and NL as we know it. Previous shifts in the baseball landscape haven't been so ambitious, but the geographical relocation proposed by some would make the biggest change since 1994, and in tandem with expansion to 32 teams (which would be a big monkey wrench to my 30 in 30 team plans every year) have some people even throwing around shifting teams to a different league (or without the clear AL/NL look, put some teams in a division with three other teams from the other league). The closest reference we have to such a situation, expansion coupled with relocation, was 1998 when baseball added the Devil Rays and Diamondbacks while shifting the Brewers from the AL to the NL to maintain even numbers in both leagues...because back then baseball didn't have year long interleague play. W...