Gird your loins, hold onto your hat, brace yourself, man or woman up, put on your big-girl/boy pants, it’s time for an old man rant and the subject this time is interleague baseball. It sucks. I hate it. It must be stopped. Interleague baseball is a sign of the rapture, it’s destroying the world, dogs and cats are in agreement on the subject.
Ok, I may be going a bit overboard but I cannot begin to tell you how much I hate interleague baseball. It’s killing what little enjoyment I still get from the game.
What is Interleague Baseball?
For many of my legion of younger readers the concept of interleague baseball might be something they don’t fully understand. Way back in time, 1997 to be precise, Major League Baseball (MLB) introduced the concept of interleague baseball. That is to say, teams from the American League playing teams from the National League as part of the regular schedule.
It was initially met with great excitement as fans from both leagues never got a chance to see the stars from the other league playing against their hometown heroes. The Cardinals playing the Yankees in the regular season sounded like a great idea. Spoiler, it wasn’t.
Prior to 1997 the two leagues played entirely separate schedules, the only time an American League team played a National League team was in the World Series although the stars faced off in the annual All-Star game.
Why does Interleague Baseball Merit an Old Man Rant?
I’m a St. Louis Cardinal fan and this is the home schedule for my beloved birds this year. Home Opener against Tampa Bay of the American League East. Next up is the New York Mets, at least a National League team. On the road for the heated rivalry, insert sarcasm emoji, with the American League Central Detroit Tigers. More National League East with the Washington Nationals. Next six home games against American League East Boston Red Sox and American League Central Cleveland Indians.
The Cardinals play in the National League Central division and are battling traditional rivals like the Chicago Cubs and the Pittsburgh Pirates with whom we’ve been in the same division since I was born a million and a half years ago. We also compete against the Cincinnati Reds and the Milwaukee Brewers. Two weeks into the season and not a single game against any one of our divisional rivals.
We play each of those teams thirteen times in a season. Thirteen, in case you aren’t a math wizard, is an odd number. Can’t have the same number of home and away games. One team gets an extra home game.
Back in ancient times, when dirt was new and hope and dreams glinted in my youthful eye, we played divisional rivals eighteen times a season. That’s 90 games, out of 162, against your divisional rivals. That creates interest, hatred even. Damn you, evil Cubbies, damn you to hell!
We now play 48 interleague games. 48 games that I just do not care about and hopefully this old man is not alone in his indifference.
The schedule is a disaster. Teams go months without playing their direct divisional rivals. It’s so boring. Rivalries die. Rivalries drive interest. This dilution of traditional rivals isn’t unique to baseball and is largely driven by revenue schemes, don’t even get me started on the death of double-headers. It pains me to quote Cubbie legend Ernie Banks but, yeah, Let’s play two!
Conclusion
I do not care about the Tampa Bay Rays, the Boston Red Sox, the Detroit Tigers, or the Cleveland Guardians. I care slightly more about the New York Mets but largely because they used to be a heated divisional rival. Rivalry drives interest and my interest in baseball is dying because of the dilution of those rivalries. Interleague baseball is not the only culprit but it’s a big one.
Shakes fist at sky!
Old Man Tom Liberman