PITTSBURGH – As far as I could tell, there was only one thing wrong about the Philadelphia Phillies-Pirates series on the Fourth of July weekend.

It had to end.

Here it is, not even the All-Star break, and the Pennsylvania clubs have already seen the last of each other after six measly games. Meanwhile, this season the Astros and Pirates and will meet 18 times even though Houston and Pittsburgh are about 1,400 miles apart. Or roughly 1,000 more than Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

Huh?

“As we’ve seen, it’s a good rivalry,” said manager John Russell, one of the few Phirates that had been on both sides of it. “It’s fun when the Phillies are here. A lot of their fans were here. When I played for the (Phillies), it was always a great rivalry. I miss that. I really do.”

At least there is a chance that we’ll see a lot more of it as early as the 2012 season. If the Pirates get their way – and they seldom do in these situations – then they’ll be back in East Division before long. Team president Frank Coonelly began to lobby for the move several months ago.

“A re-alignment is something that the commissioner’s office handles, and a lot of things have to happen before it takes place,” Connelly said to me. “I know the on-field committee has discussed a number of different issues, including the re-alignment of the teams. In that context, it’s certainly possible. Realistically, it won’t happen next year because a lot of work has been done on the schedule already, but 2012 is possibility.”

True fact: The Phillies and Pirates are the only major league teams in the same state and same league but not in the same division.

“There’s talk about a 15-15 (split) in which one National League team moves to the American League,” Coonelly went on to say. “If that doesn’t happen, then perhaps a move by us to the East Division is something that the commissioner’s office should consider. We would like to play more teams in our time zone.”

And generate more revenue, naturally, which would mean additional resources for baseball-related matters.

A part of me believes that, from a competitive standpoint, the Pirates are better off where they are now. In the Central Division, they have to contend against only one franchise with really deep pockets, and the Chicago Cubs are expected to slash payroll under new ownership.

In the East Division, the Pirates would have to butt heads with the Phillies and New York Mets, which started the season with the fourth- and fifth-highest payrolls in the major leagues. There they could be in a situation similar to that of the Baltimore Orioles, the team that the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankee$ chew up and spit out like a bad cigar every year.

As Pirates management has said repeatedly, though, it doesn’t intend to have a low payroll forever. If you want to be the best, Coonelly contends, then you may as well play against the best. At some point, you’ll have to meet them, anyway.

OK, I’m in now.

Here’s my solution: Move the Pirates to the East Division, relocate the Atlanta Braves to the Central Division, shift the Milwaukee Brewers to the American League Central and the Kansas City Royals to the American League West.

In their 40-something years of existence, the Braves and the Royals actually spent more time in the West Division than anywhere else. Atlanta is farther west than any East member currently – even Pittsburgh, for that matter -- so it’s the logical choice for such a move.

The Brewers started in the American League and went to their only World Series there, so the two are hardly strangers. There is talk that they would like a change of scenery. As it is, a number of Brewers and their fans still consider the Minnesota Twins to be their biggest rivals.

Best of all, each league would consist of 15 teams and each division would have five teams this way.

It’s a win-win situation for the Phillies and the Pirates, too. Any rivalry has to have a history of venom, and these teams have it. In the 1970s decade, there were few if any more intense struggles in baseball. In four consecutive seasons (1975-78), they finished one-two in the division. Remember, this was the era before wild card playoff teams, which meant that the runner-up went directly to the golf course after the regular season.

And you just know how much Pittsburghers adore Philly fans.

 “Yeah, they’re awesome,” Jeff Karstens said. (Pause for slight roll of eyes.) “But to have them in our ballpark makes the game a lot more fun to play.”

The truth is, Phillies fans desperately need the Pirates to bring out the worst in them. According to my spies, they displayed more rust than the Titanic last weekend. There are only so many creative insults that you can direct at the Mets after all these years, I guess.

Seriously, I can’t believe that I’m about to use “Phillies fans” and “well-behaved” in the same sentence. Well, except for the ones that reportedly flashed in their hotel window near the ballpark on Friday night, anyway.

“To be honest, I was disappointed by the Phillies fans,” one Pirates player told me. “All I heard was the usual ‘You (stink).’ That’s not very original.”

When one Phillies supporter began to brag out loud early in the game on Saturday night, an elderly Pirates fan shut the kid up for a few innings.

 “We beat you two games already!” the woman yelled. “Before you can talk, you’ve got to beat us once!”

Ah, isn’t brotherly love grand?

Heck, put the Phillies and Pirates in the same division, and I’ll even invite Larry Bowa and Ed Ott to throw out the first punches.