Interleague Smitterleague

I've been waiting for someone to write this article so I could tear them apart. Thanks Rob Rains, that's a hell of a sweater. Me in regular typeface/Rob in Italics

Rains: Cardinals-Blue Jays? Yes, interleague play is for the birds

The Cardinals open a three-game series Tuesday night in Toronto. Pardon me if I yawn.
Understand, I have nothing against Canada. It is a fine country.

Communist.

I used to enjoy going to Montreal twice a year.

Pansy

I could tolerate Youpi, and the chorus of The Happy Wanderer from the fans at Olympic Stadium. I didn’t even mind going through customs, telling the nice agent that I had no intention of visiting a farm while I was in their country.

Which was a lie, Rob Reins smuggled trough 2,000 tons of Candian corn into our country during his tenure as a baseball beat writer. I can't prove this, but why would he prematurely deny it?
I
t’s interleague play that I can’t stand.

Here we go.

Having watched the Seattle Mariners and the Oakland A’s play the Cardinals for the past week, I realized once again how much I dislike one of Bud Selig’s favorite changes to the game. I will admit that when Bud created the wild card, I was against it too, but over the years I have changed my mind and realize that it has generated some extra excitement and interest late in the season that otherwise would not exist.
That is not the case with interleague play, however. It is an idea whose time has come and gone. If you are a National League club not named the Dodgers, Giants, Cubs or Mets, there are only two AL teams you would like to see on your schedule – the Yankees or Red Sox.

Really? I would think those were the LAST teams you would want to see. Unless you were the owner I suppose.

Those four NL clubs have built-in rivals who play in their same market, so those games are naturally appealing to fans in those areas. For all of the other match-ups going on over this two-week period? Forget it.
In addition to the Cardinals-Blue Jays excitement, fans in Washington are no doubt doing cartwheels about the Royals coming to town.

I'm going to guess that Rob has not been paying attention this year or he would know the Blue Jays are arguably the 4th best team in the AL. I think one would welcome a match up of two top teams in their respective leagues. Fans in Washington are still doing cartwheels over Strasburg being the second coming. But I'm sure when they see they get to beat the Royals for a few games they'll be even more ecstatic.

Thirty minutes up the road, fans in Baltimore are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Florida Marlins. The Pirates certainly will have fans of the Texas Rangers excited, and I hope the Tampa Bay Rays have brought in extra ushers to handle the throngs of fans who will turn out with the Padres in town.

Because watching the Orioles play the Royals is much more exciting. Or the way people turn out to see the A's come into town.

Before anybody who likes interleague play, for some reason, points out there are a lot of uninteresting match-ups the rest of the season when the NL plays the NL and the AL plays the AL too, I will agree with you – with one major exception.

Alright he caught me there. Go on.

These teams are in the same league. They have to play each other. It’s how they decide who will win the division, and advance to the postseason.

Really? The A's vs. the Royals is how we decide who advances to the postseason?

I know the interleague games count in the standings too, and that’s part of the problem. It creates a tremendous imbalance in the schedule, especially for the teams that don’t have a natural rival, like the Cubs-White Sox, Mets-Yankees, etc.

Valid point number one, except EVERYONE has that imbalance. If you're not playing in the AL East, you have an advantage of playing a weaker schedule than anyone in the AL East. Schedules are not fair and balanced in any case.

The only true and fair way to decide a champion is by having every team in a division play the same opponents an equal number of times. That can’t happen with interleague play. Want just one example? The Dodgers play the Angels six times. Their division rival, the Padres, play the Mariners six times. The Dodgers also play a series each against the Yankees and Red Sox while the Padres get the Orioles and Blue Jays.

That's a rough break, but it's the luck of the draw. And it creates bigger matchups that generate more interest in the game. Kinda the price you pay if you are going to be one of the big boys.

Think the Dodgers won’t have a gripe if they lose the NL West to the Padres by a game?

Not really, I mean they have plenty of other games to make up the difference.

I also believe that interleague play has watered down the “importance” or at least interest in the All-Star game.

Using quotes around importance kinda ruins your own argument.

It used to be if you were a fan of an AL or NL team, it was your one chance to see your players play against the stars of the other league. Now, we have seen Ichiro, so there really is nothing special about seeing him in the All-Star game.

Yes, as you can tell Rob does not watch any baseball that doesn't directly involve his team. So the All-Star game is the only time he can watch Ichiro.

Interest in the All-Star game was so bad a few years ago that Bud came up with the idea of having the game decide home field advantage for the World Series. And, worse, he still believes it is a good idea. I would laugh if it wasn’t so sad.

Yes we all hate that idea except Bud.

One of the things which used to be special about the World Series was facing a team that you might never have played at all, or only in spring training. Now we get World Series match-ups that could be the third series those teams have played in that season. That will do a lot for the television ratings.

Because nothing hurts interest between competators like history. Wrestling and MMA know this. That's why they never do rematches. Plus the next season you get to see the previous World Series competetors face off again. Why? Because it's a premium matchup that can only be created if you have interleague play.

Baseball fans in St. Louis don’t care about the Toronto Blue Jays.

Damn!

If we wanted to watch that team play, all we have to do is buy the package from MLB and we could watch all of their games we want. I hope the phone lines aren’t overloaded when you call to place your order.

Do you not like baseball Rob? I love the MLB package. But I'm a baseball fan, so...

Baseball has always been, and I believe always will be, a regional sport. People generally cheer for one team.

As opposed to what sport where you cheer for multiple teams? How did this line get through the editor? What does that have to do with Interleague play anyway?

We like the Cardinals, or the Cubs, or the Reds, or the Phillies. We watch a game or listen on the radio because our team is playing. We watch and pay attention to match-ups in our league because they affect our team. If the Reds are playing the Giants, we care, because a Reds loss helps the Cardinals. A Tampa Bay loss, or another loss by the Orioles, does nothing for us.

That has nothing to do with interleague play. And why wouldn't pay just as much attention to the Reds playing the Giants as you would the Reds playing the Mariners?
The opinion of the people in charge of baseball, of course, is that fans love inter-league play. They will throw out statistics about attendance figures, and how the inter-league games out-draw other games on an annual basis.

Stupid statistics, proving Rob wrong.

Of course they do – because of the Yankees, the Red Sox, the Cubs, the Dodgers and those inter-city games.

Rob, I know you don't pay attention to teams not in your league, but the Yankees and Red Sox draw the same no matter what. So do the Dodgers and Cubs. Interleague play probably means less to them than anyone else.

I think there’s also some funky arithmetic going on. The Cardinals said they had a sellout crowd of more than 42,000 fans for Sunday’s game against the A’s. Funny, but right after that figure was announced, I took a close look at one section in the upper deck in right field. I counted 13 people and 225 empty seats. I guess all of those folks picked the same time to go to the restroom or buy a hot dog.
There were several other sections, also down the left field line, which seemed to be about the same. How could that game be counted as a sell out?

Because they go by tickets available vs. how many seats are available. If you never make a back section available for purchase then it can't count against you.


Because Bud wants us to believe how great interleague play is.

Yes, it's a grand conspiracy.

I know there will be some Cardinal fans in Toronto for this series, even though it won’t be as many as will pack Kaufmann Stadium in Kansas City this weekend. That still doesn’t mean inter-league play is a good idea. Those same fans would be in Cincinnati or Pittsburgh or Atlanta too, if the Cardinals happened to be playing there.

Well traveling with your team is an expensive proposition. Maybe MLB should work out deals with the airlines to make it more accessible for fans.

This is the 14th season of inter-league play, and the original stated intention was that it would give baseball fans a chance to see all of the stars of the other league come through their city. Yes, that’s why the Cardinals have never played in Baltimore, and the Texas Rangers have never played in St. Louis, and why the Cardinals went to Detroit three years in a row.
In those 14 years, the Red Sox have played three regular-season games in St. Louis, the same number as the Yankees. Both series came in 2005, the final year at Busch Stadium II. I guess we will have to start building Busch Stadium IV to get those teams to come back again.
Either that, or play them in the World Series. Now, that sounds like an idea that not even Bud Selig or baseball could screw up.

I have no witty ending. I like interleague play, I think it freshens things up. On a small sample size I always try to get tickets to whatever team from the other league my local team plays. I mean if your a Brewers fan wouldn't you get tired of play the Pirates 20+ times a year? Well maybe not.

Case Closed.