Interleague Play Results: You be the Judge

by user Ron Sen, MD

MLB designed interleague play to create additional fan interest. I suppose the true local rivalries (Yankees-Mets, Dodgers-Angels) do, but the Red Sox- Phillies, or Florida-Tampa Bay?

Aside from the false premise, we have the lopsided results and some really useless stats like "Derek Jeter has the most hits in the history of interleague play." Oh, and of course, Manny Ramirez has a higher salary than the Florida Marlins payroll. But don't worry, Florida is trying to fix that, looking to dump Dontrell Willis so most of the Yankee starters will have a higher salary than the Florida payroll. Ironically, Florida is one of only two teams with winning records (Colorado being the other) against the AL.

By division, the Al East is 53-32 against the NL East, the AL Central is 60-25 against the NL Central, and the AL West is 35-32 against the NL West. Overall, that's 148-89, a .624 winning percentage, better than the best winning percentage in the NL (the Mets at .600).

The mighty Cardinals, one of the best teams in the NL, is 4-10 against the AL Central, and Seattle has moved over .500 by pitch-slapping the NL West, going 14-3. The Cardinals would probably be the fourth best team in the AL Central, if they could get by the Tribe. Tony LaRussa must truly be a genius, to have gotten out of the AL.

Five AL teams, Boston (15), Minnesota (15), Seattle (14), Chicago(14), and Detroit (14) have won over 80 percent of their games against the NL, and collectively are 72-13 against the 'Senior Circuit'.

Kansas City, arguably the worst team in baseball is 10-7 against the National League.

Is it the 'rich' franchises (New York, Boston, LA Angels of Anaheim, California, Milky Way Galaxy) are all in the AL? What about the Mets, Cardinals, Cubs, Dodgers, and Braves? Or that the Moneyball teams (Boston, Toronto, Oakland) live there? Or are all the best watering holes and gentlemen's clubs in AL cities, leading the NLers astray? We have to know.

Interleague play. It sure looks like this dog won't hunt.

Date

Sun 07/02/06, 5:39 am EST

ChristofMVP

1250 days ago

Score 2

The NL is just brutal this year. No question about that. Look at the Phils. They are starting a pitcher who, in 7 years in the majors, has never started a game before today.

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The sharkDraft Pick

1250 days ago

Score 3

I loved interleague in the beginning (probably just the novelty of it all) but now I think it's run its course. The NL should play the AL only 8 times a year - the All-Star game and a seven-game World Series (are those even possible anymore?)

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ChristofMVP

1250 days ago

Score 3

I agree with this comment, shark. Maybe do a 3 years than 1 year off kind of deal. But, right now, the idea is getting rather old.

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ASwaffAll-American

1250 days ago

Score 1

I still enjoy Interleague play, but it should definitely be cut back to limit lame matchups that generate no local interest at all, like Royals-Astros, Royals-Pirates, Blue Jays-Rockies, etc. Sometimes you can have some matchups that have more interest than they might have when you looked at it the year before, like having the White Sox playing the Astros. But they definitely don't need to have 15 interleague games per year. I think 9 would be plenty enough for people to get their fill. You can have an away-home series for in-state rivalries, and then one more series of choice. I think that would work perfectly.

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