| The Best Column (#2) - Interleague Play |
| It’s Monday night at 7:00 PM and I am suffering from a rare summer day off from MLB action. Well, that’s not entirely true. It’s not a complete day off, with Houston playing the Brew Crew, but being a Sox fan, my interest level in that series hovers just above sleepy. So instead I sit here, determined to write another The Best Column. The topic of this week’s tomfoolery? Interleague play. |
| Yes, Bud Selig’s little brainchild that was created in order to save baseball before Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa did the job themselves in 1998. Has it really been worth it? Has it done anything at all to "save baseball"? Will it even matter after the players strike in august? These are all very, very good questions. |
| After witnessing yet another exciting game between my Chicago White Sox and the hated rival Cubs, I come to the conclusion that I love interleague play. The games between two rivals with some kind of history, that wouldn’t normally meet in the regular season, are always special match-ups. Games such as White Sox vs. Cubs, any of the match-ups involving California teams, and the recent Yankees vs. Mets series involving Roger the Dodger have all provided intense baseball games that even a purist who despises the idea of two teams from different leagues meeting would have to love. |
| These are truly the games that make me love the inter-league play. How many of you weren’t glued to your chairs to see Shawn Estes throw a ball wide of Clemens ass? How many of you were upset he wasn’t hit in the head? That’s a different column, I suppose. But the point is that interleague play (and some weird World Series bat-throwing) brought us this game, so we should all be grateful. |
| On the other hand, you’ve got exciting, exhilarating series like the Devil Rays vs. The Expos to look forward to. Or let’s not forget the bar-burning Orioles vs. Marlins series. No one cares. Fans of those teams don’t even care. These games are so boring and silly that it’s almost worth it to get rid of interleague play forever. Especially if it means I don’t have to sit through a Pirates/White Sox series this year, where Todd Ritchie embarrasses himself and Sox GM Ken Williams some more by getting blown to pieces by his former team. |
| There are the rare fun inter-league games that I am interested in seeing that aren’t just confined to inter-city rivalries, however. The upcoming Atlanta/Chicago series is something that I never dreamed would be a reality. And a Yankees/Giants series would be an awful lot of fun too. So the question becomes, how do we keep the interesting interleague games while minimizing the chance for the stupid ones? |
| I have proposed an interleague lottery. Automatically on the schedule, where applicable, would be the regional rivalries. One White Sox/Cubs series a year, one Yankees/Mets series a year, one Rays/Marlins series a year, etc, would be an automatic guarantee for the teams involved. Then the team names would be pooled into a lottery where two teams would be picked out of a hat or other large jug-type object randomly, until each team had a total of 4 interleague opponents, two home and two away. Sure, this could lead to your team getting all of the really bad opponents. But it could also lead to your team getting all of the really good match-ups. It would also provide for a lot more excitement than the current format of playing one whole division. |
| Think my wonderful scenario has lots of holes? Let me know! Click my name at the bottom of the column and send me an e-mail explaining your position on interleague play. The best responses will be printed in the next The Best Column. For now, this has been Dan Kricke, signing off. |
| - Dan Kricke |
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