“In a sense it would be akin to having the U.S. Open tennis tournament with a different number of entrants on one side of the draw as opposed to the other,” he said. “Nobody would stand for that. The best reason for 15-15 is everybody would have four competitors to win their division, and everybody would have the same number of competitors to qualify for wild-card positions.”

Commissioner Bud Selig and Weiner both said that so-called radical realignment — the elimination of divisional identities and/or several teams switching leagues — was not under consideration. Selig was more cautious than Weiner about a 15-15 split, but said he supported realignment generally and had kept an open mind.

“The teams in the N.L. Central fairly say, ‘Why should we have six teams in one division and other teams have no more than four or five?’ ” Selig said, at a separate luncheon. “And that’s a fair comment. So there are things I’d like to accomplish. I think if you’re really thinking about significant realignment, it’s probably going to have to wait. But I’ll pick up the phone and call some people who are really knowledgeable with schedules.”

Several All-Stars said they had no real preference or had not thought much about the issues. Heath Bell of the Padres said he hoped all teams in a division would play the same interleague schedule; Matt Cain of the Giants said he hoped an extra team in the A.L. West could make travel easier for players in that division.

“We just go out and compete,” the Reds’ Brandon Phillips said. “We don’t really think about the schedules. But if you think about it, it would make more sense to have 15 and 15. It really would. But who’s going to be the team that leaves? That’s going to be the problem.”