Interleague weekend
Here we are in mid-May and baseball traditionalists are already having their tails pulled. The weekend has been given over to Interleague play for twenty-eight teams (with the Cubs and the Pirates sitting this round out), providing match-ups between genuine local rivals, ho-hum games between teams with no links whatsoever, and a topic of conversation that can ignite heated rows in an instant.
It does seem a bit early to be playing interleague baseball. Most teams have barely started getting their teeth into their normal rivalries, so to be switching to games with the other league almost feels as though we are breaking away to a sideshow before the proper competition has had a chance to get going. This is one of many issues raised by the way this concept has developed over time. Change is always resisted by many; it’s human nature to stick with what you know and are comfortable with. Change is seemingly inevitable though, whether it is for the better or not.
Interleague play can be thrown together with the designated hitter (DH) rule and the wild card to add up to the trinity of divisive modern baseball changes.  The impact they have had on the baseball landscape when you put them together is considerable.
The DH was introduced in the American League in 1973. While it hasn’t necessarily prompted a significant boost in offense, it has created a situation where the two leagues play by different sets of rules. Some see this as a good thing, offering variety and giving each league a slightly different character. The downside is that each team (if they are smart) will gear their roster to best match the rules by which they mainly play, making things awkward when the two sides join up for interleague play. It’s fine in the World Series, where that clash is a fundamental part of the contest, but it’s a different story when the games count towards each team’s regular season record. When the margins are so small, a team may reach the play-offs on account of how well they adapted to the opposing league’s rules during the interleague games (e.g. whether your regular DH can play a passable first base or has to sit on the bench/cost your team runs due to fielding errors).Â
It’s something of an oddity that the interleague schedule can have a bearing on which teams come out on top in their own league. This season, the Brewers have to play three games against the Red Sox, while the Cubs miss both Boston and the Yankees, despite the NL Central being matched against the AL East this year. Maybe over the course of several years things will even themselves out, but if the Brewers drop games against the Red Sox and miss out to the Cubs by the slimmest of margins, that’s not going to be much comfort to them. Is it right that a team can make the play-offs simply because they had a slightly easier interleague schedule than their main rival?
Being strict about which teams play against each other gets even more complicated when we consider the unbalanced schedule and the wild card. The latter has won over many of its critics since it was introduced in 1995, not least because the fears that it might dilute the standard of post-season play have proved to be unfounded (four teams have gone on to win the World Series after making October through the ‘back door’). Yet the wild card is not really a fair competition in one sense: the teams that are competing for it do not play the same teams the same amount of times.Â
In fact, the more you think about the way MLB is structured, the less sense it makes. If you aren’t going to strictly compete within your own league, why bother splitting the teams into two at all? If you are going to play a significant number of interleague games, shouldn’t the teams all play by the same set of rules? Why split the teams into divisions when they don’t really mean anything anyway, particularly as you don’t have to win your division to make the post-season?
The current system has developed in piecemeal fashion over a long period of time. It is definitely not the way you would structure the competition if you were starting from scratch, but it’s also hard to argue that MLB is fundamentally flawed when attendances are so high, TV deals are so lucrative, and the product on the field is of such outstanding quality.
For all its flaws, interleague play is here to stay. Put it down as a quirk in the system and enjoy those mouthwatering Orioles-Nationals games.
Week seven wrap-up
Tampa Bay (25-18) go 5-2 on the week to force a tie with the Red Sox (26-19) at the top of the AL East. The Yankees sit dead last and Hank Steinbrenner is even suggesting that his team needs to play more like the Rays. Strange days indeed! The White Sox (22-20) have won four in a row to stay ahead of the Indians in the Central, while the Angels (25-20)have a half-game lead over the A’s in the West. The Rangers’ great run of form has seen them work their way back to .500 (22-22).
In the Senior circuit, the main changes have taken place in the Central. The Cubs (26-17) now lead the way, with the Cardinals and the Astros being their closest rivals. The Brewers have sunk to the bottom thanks to a four-game losing streak, two of which coming in a double-header yesterday against the Red Sox. The Marlins (24-18) are just about holding off the rest of the NL East, while the D-Backs continue to lead both the West and the whole of the Majors with their 27-16 record.
