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Interleague Debate
By Jonathan Atwood on June 16th, 2008 12:05 AM |
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This weekend marked the beginning of interleague play for most of the league. The Phillies face off with the Boston Red Sox starting Monday, then welcome the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in for a three game set. This time of year always spurs a lot of debate amongst the baseball faithful and we here at Hot Stove Philly are certainly not one to stay out of a good controversy.
Last year Atlanta Braves’ third baseman Chipper Jones complained that the interleague format was unfair. He believes it isn’t fair that the Braves and Mets consistently play tougher opponents then the Phils, Marlins and Nationals. The Braves’ interleague rival is Boston and the Mets rival is the crosstown Yankees, whereas the Phils’ rival is Toronto and Florida’s is Tampa Bay.
‘I don’t think there’s any question it’s not fair, but I don’t think major league baseball is concerned with fair,’ Jones said. ‘If you play the top teams in the American League and everybody else doesn’t, it’s pretty unfair…If we’re going to play the American League Central, everybody has to play all the teams in the American League Central,’ Jones said. ‘This split-it-up and we have to play our rival in the American League East stuff, I don’t get it. It’s unfair for us and the Mets on a year-in, year-out basis to have to play the Yankees and Red Sox when other teams don’t.This is no disrespect to the rest of the teams in the American League East, because Tampa is up and coming, and in two or three years, Tampa might be the class of the American League East and the Florida Marlins are going to have to deal with it,’ he said.
Well this year has shown how wrong his complaint is. Tampa Bay is in second place in the AL East this year, only 2.5 games back of Boston. For a time this year, Tampa had the best record in the AL. The Marlins are battling the Phillies for first place in the NL East. Meanwhile, both the Mets and Yankees are six games plus back in their respective divisions. Boston may be a powerhouse now, but remember they won their first World Series in 80 some odd years just a couple years ago. Despite the fact that the Yankees won a string of titles in the past decade or so, they sucked for a good many years leading up to that. The Blue Jays may not be great right now, but won back to back World Series titles in 1992 and ‘93. The Royals are garbage now, but were a serious force back in the early ’80s. How about the Big Red Machine?
My point is that teams go through cycles. So while it may be unfair that the Braves and Mets have to play the Red Sox and Yankees six times each, the Sox and Yankees aren’t always going to be the best.
Whether Chipper is right, or simply a whiny baby, is somewhat besides the point though. The greater question is whether we should have interleague play at all. Does it cheapen the game? Or add an additional level of excitement and intrigue to our beloved past time?
I, for one, could go either way. I agree with the purists that it cheapens the World Series, which used to be the first and only meeting of the season between the two, distinct leagues. (Let me say for the record that I think the All Star game determining home field advantage in the World Series far more cheapens the championship game.) Baseball isn’t like any other sport in that its different conferences play a distinct style of the sport. The strategy and style of play in the AL due to the existence of the designated hitter make it a very different league than the NL. It’s more about power and scoring, whereas the NL is more about small ball and strategy (the superior league I think). The theory goes that you can’t mix the two leagues, they play such a different style of baseball, and I can understand that argument, and tend to agree.
Unfortunately for me, I also agree that mixing the two leagues for a couple weeks adds a new level of interest to the game. It allows those of us in the NL to see the designated hitter in action, as well as the style of play it engenders. It creates rivalries that you wouldn’t otherwise get. A rivalry between the Mets and Yankees is very exciting to me, and I’m not a particular fan of either team. Likewise, a rivalry between the Royals and Cardinals intrigues me as well. An all Chicago series? Dodgers and Angels? I find them very exciting.
That being said, if we are going to do interleague play, then we should do it right. Pitting Cincinnati and Texas against each other doesn’t make any sense. Who cares about the Padres and Twins, honestly? The rivalries need to be real ones. Perhaps it could be two series a season, instead of four or five. Each series should be of exceptational intrigue. And I think they should reverse the rules. So for the series between the Phils and Red Sox in Philly, they should play by AL rules. This would give the different league’s fans a first hand of the other league’s style of play.
I don’t know whether we should do interleague play or not. It has its equal attributes and faults, pros and cons. I do know that either way, its not going anywhere. MLB Commissioner Bud Selig views interleague play as one of his crowning achievements. That being said, I think we should make the best of it and make some much needed improvements. What do you think?
There are currently 2 responses to “Interleague Debate”
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Personally I’m not a fan of interleague play, at least how it’s currently structured. Year in and year out you see the same series’, which sort of cheapens the matchups should they happen in the post-season. I’d be okay if it was done once every few seasons, but I think primarily it’s a revenue maker, so it will never change.
As much as I find Chipper to be a whiner, he has a point. Right now the Cubs have to have a series with the first place White Sox, while the second place Cardinal, take on their “natural rival”, the Kansas City Royals. You don’t think the Cards have an edge? If you look at the Phils and the Mets the difference in schedule is they have six games against the Yankees while the Phils have 3 against Toronto and Boston. Given the state of the Yankees, you’d have to give the Mets an advantage there.
One thing I will say, I’ve recently found a different perspective on the debate. Growing up in New York, and spending a majority of my adult life living in NYC, I had the choice of seeing any team I wanted. If I wanted to see the Phils, I’d head to Shea. If I wanted to see the Orioles I’d head to the Bronx.
Now that I live in Phila, I realize that when you only have one team in your city, the opportunity to see a team from another league is a big deal. I was talking today at work how my wife and I are going to the game Sunday, and people were jealous becaue I’m going to see Vladimir Guererro, Torii Hunter, and Garrett Anderson. I never really thought of it that way because I’ve seen those player play. I guess living in NYC, I sort of took advantage of the opportunity to see baseball in both leagues.
It really hasn’t swayed my personal opinion, but have given me a new understanding why people like it so much.
I disagree with the argument that they play a tougher team so it’s unfair. First off, teams go through cycles. The Royals used to be really good and will be good again eventually.
And if the scheduling was based on good teams playing other good teams and not stacking the deck with a schedule of crappy teams, etc, then this year the Diamondbacks and Dodgers should play the Central more than they play the West, or the Cubs should get to play the Giants more.
You can’t schedule based on how good teams are because it changes from one year to the next. Look at Detroit and both New York teams. Look at Colorado. Also look at the Florida teams.
I agree that interleague play if flawed, but its not because Chipper and his Braves play Boston and the Phillies play Toronto. It’s because the Padres are playing Minnesota. Or the Phils are playing the Angels, even though they are an exciting team to go see because of a few of their players, the match up doesn’t make any real sense. I think they should reduce the number of series, make the match ups more meaningful, and reverse the league rules.