What a Difference a Division Makes

As I listened to the start of last night's Mets/Reds game on the radio, I was shocked when the statement was made that the Reds and Mets had the same record, but the Reds were a mere 3 games out of first place. How is a .500 team that close to contention?

I don't pay too much attention to the NL Central. Normally it's the forgotten division where the Pirates, Brewers & Astros wallow in obscurity while the Cardinals normally have a decent team. But I looked and yes, Wayne & Howie were right. The Mets would be, as of today, 3.5 games out of first place in the NL Central.

Just bizarre. This got me to thinking about the whole restructuring of the divisions in baseball and how there is talk of realigning teams. Honestly, it doesn't matter. There's an ebb and flow to baseball where some teams are good for a while and then they're bad for a while. If you restructure solely based on location, that's one thing, but thinking that a restructure will add balance to baseball is short-sighted.

So while the Mets fade into mediocrity in the NL East, it appears the Reds will be contenders into August even at a sub .500 level. Where is justice?