I 100% support interleague play and I think MLB has just about got it right. Early in the season is the best time to have interleague play. For many teams, it provides an attendance spike during the early part of the season before school is out. True, not every team has a ‘natural’ interleague rival. But, I like some of the matchups it has produced. Also, rotating the divisions gives fans the chance to see every team in person.
It’s not that I “like” Interleague Play (beyond the Mets playing the Yankees), but I just don’t see the big deal anymore. It’s become part of the game.
Generally opposed to it here, but coming to accept it as part of life. I don’t like the loss of the idea that the World Series is the only time in the year (other than Spring Training, which does not count) that the forces of truth and light (NL) do battle with the forces of evil and darkness (AL).
I also don’t like the effect it has on competitive balance if teams within the same division don’t play exactly the same interleague schedule. Which I don’t think they do…
Nay, nay, a thousand times nay! It has diminished league rivalries too much. Between interleague and a grossly unbalanced schedule, each team makes exactly one trip to each non-division league city per year. They’ve gone way overboard. Instead of playing your division rivals 19 times, it should be only slightly more than you play your other divisions in the league. I could see say in the AL East, the Yankees would play the other 4 East teams about 16 times each for 64 games, then play the other 9 teams in the league 10 times each for 90 more That would leave 8 games for 2 interleague series. If everybody played their natural rivals one series per year, then one other team in the opposite leage one series per year it would be about right. That would mean say that if you were a Giant fan you’d see the Yankees come to town about once per generation, making it more special.
Interleague play is a pox on the game!!!
But then, I hate the DH, too. 
I liked the suggestion that I heard several years ago: Have interleague play, except if the game is at an American League park have National League rules and vice versa. That way home crowds who never get to see pitchers hit get a chance, and crowds that never see a DH get a chance. Either way IMHO interleague play is a good thing.
Yea.
I agree but not everyone has a natural rival. I don’t know how things would break but if the Jays rival ends up being (for argument’s sake) the Phillies, how does playing them once a year matter? Or drive up attendance? I’d rather see the Tigers or Indians come up twice a year.
Negatory. It is simply unfair to have teams competing for the same playoff spot based on unequal schedules. If I ran the baseball world there would be no interleague, no wild-card, four divisions in each league (or two with the top two from each making the post-season), and a balanced schedule.
Nope. Everyone says “oh, but now we get to see the Yankees!” Big whoop. They’re on ESPN twice a week. I think Jon Miller does maybe six more Giant games than Yankee/Red Sox games in a given year. (Doubly annoying here, since a $4 BART ride and a $5 will get you in to see the Yankees in Oakland a couple times a year.) Plus those fans are goddamn annoying.
Plus I don’t like watching that bush league American League DH bullshit. I share your vision, villa.
Plus every game we play against Tampa Bay or Texas or yes, even the Red Sox, is a game where we could be playing the Dodgers or someone else in our own division.
And once we get rid of interleague play in baseball, we can do it in the NFL too. 2 exhibition games, 18 week regular season. 2 games against division rivals, play everyone else in your conference once.
Baseball is my sport, but I’ve always thought NFL scheduling was batshit insane.
Down with interleague play!! Here in Cleveland I want to play American League teams like Baltimore and Toronto ( that great American city ) more than two series (home and home) a year. If we have to have interleague play so the Yankees can play the Mets and the Cubs can play the White Sox, then limit it to leap years.
I’m not opposed to the single idea of playing interleague games; my problem with it is that, as BobLibDem points out, it really cuts down on how much you get to see other teams in your own league. The ultra-unbalanced schedule may give ESPN huge boners because they can broadcast nonstop Yankees-Red Sox games, but I am not sure that there is an awareness outside of MLB (headquartered in New York City) and ESPN (headquartered in Red Sox country) that people outside of a rivalry don’t care about the rivalry. I don’t care about the Red Sox - Yankee rivalry, or the Cardinals-Cubs rivalry, for that matter.
I do get kind of sick of my team seemingly playing nobody but the Yankees, Red Sox, Orioles and Rays. Those four teams are damn near half the schedule. Throw in interleague play, and now my team can’t play anyone else in the AL more than six or seven times. I’d like to see the Twins and the A’s a little more.
I like interleague play, for three reasons:
-
I’m a White Sox fan, but Chicago is a Cubs town. Interleague play forces the Cubbies to compete with us on equal terms for six days out of the year, and forces their fans to acknowledge our existence, and gives the White Sox a huge publicity jolt.
-
I like to go on road trips to watch road games, and interleague play increases the variety, providing an opportunity to see the Sox play in cities and parks that they wouldn’t otherwise.
-
I hate the DH, and for nine days per year I get to watch games without it.
You got DH in our pitchers spot!
I think it’s a great idea. Baseball is entertainment, and the fans are customers. Why should bona-fide baseball fans have been deprived of the chance to see Barry Bonds and Albert Pujols just because they live in an American League city, or Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez because they live in a National League city? Baseball is for the fans, and interleague play means more opportunities for fans to see the best players.
This is why, to be honest, I’d rather see them dump the unbalanced schedule first.
Keep it, but make it fair- by now the initial novelty of Yanks/Mets, Angels/Dodgers etc. has worn off, and it should now be rotated yearly by division- AL East plays X number of games vs NL East one year, vs NL Central the next, etc. like the NFL does- that way the end of the season standings are more fair.
Right. If you don’t happen to have a natural rival, then you should play two teams from the other league on a rotating basis, one home and one away. So over 16 years or so you’d visit every city once.
Still, the reason interleague play exists is for Yankees/Mets and to a much lesser degree Dodgers/Angels, Cubs/White Sox, A’s/Giants. For the sake of the money made on these games, and for the goal of more Yankees/Red Sox TV games, MLB has really bastardized the schedule. In Tiger country here, I get bloody sick of seeing the Royals and Twins and White Sox- let me see more Yankees and Blue Jays and A’s. I can see some unbalance to the schedule, but MLB has gone way overboard (though not so batty as the NHL).