Interleague Lost its Intrigue
I’ll admit that I, too, was excited to watch interleague play when Major League Baseball introduced it back in 1997. The “Red Line Rivalry”, “Subway Series”, ”Bay Bridge Series” (and some other professional baseball rivalries which were determined by geographic proximity) added intrigue to what can otherwise be a slow stretch on the sports calendar. However, since then, the novelty has grown thinner than Lou Piniella’s hairline.
For the 7th straight season, the American League has won the season series. Powering the AL this season were the Chicago White Sox (15-3), Texas Rangers (14-4) and Boston Red Sox 13-5) while the pathetic Pittsburgh Pirates helped ground the NL with a 2-13 interleague record in 2010.
It does provide baseball with a spike in attendance (according to MLB.com, interleague play in 2010 drew 8,379,834 fans for an average of 33,253 per game) and a media-frenzy in a few, select cities but the relevance of interleague play is nonexistent. If not for the ridiculous overreaction to a tied All-Star Game in 2002, the results of interleague play could be used to determine home field advantage for the World Series.
It’s not like it would be the first time someone from Boston would root for the Yankees
Conversely, under the current system, the league that wins the most games during interleague play is, in fact, penalized for their success.
The 2006 Major League Baseball season serves as my example. The American League decisively proved to be far superior to the National League by dominating interleague play that season, 154-98. Due mostly to the lopsided record of interleague play, the St. Louis Cardinals were able to win the 2006 NL Central Division with a paltry 83-78 regular season record. Meanwhile, four teams from the American League (Toronto Blue Jays, Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox and Los Angeles Angels) all posted better regular season records than St. Louis but failed to make the postseason. Adding to the insult, the Cardinals would go on to win the World Series that year.
When introduced in 1997, interleague play helped rejuvenate interest in Major League Baseball (which had been waning since the 1994 players’ strike). Since then, well, take it away B.B….
