… and if so, what changes should be made to improve the interleague experience?
Let me begin by saying that I am, by and large, a baseball purist. I cry over the demise of the doubleheader and hope that the DH will eventually die; however, these are topics for other threads (please don’t hijack this one). My question is simple: are we ready to admit that interleague is a reality in MLB for the foreseeable future, and, if so, should the league make any changes to improve the issues of fairness and fan experience?
I would make the following changes:
- Since I’ve accepted the premise that interleague is a reality for the well-foreseeable future and it won’t go away, I believe the Brewers should hop back to the AL so that we have 6 divisions of 5 teams each. The most logical way to do this is send the Brewers to the AL Central and the Royals to the AL West, but other moves are certainly possible. I find it unacceptable from a competitive standpoint that one division can have 6 teams and another 4. In addition to uneven numbers of games against division opponents, it has hugely unfair implications for winning a division and making the playoffs. The uneven distribution also results in unfair discrepancies in total interleague games played. Typically, terrible teams (like my Pirates) play several fewer interleague games, which denies them the increased ticket sales that interleague play typically brings in.
So if we have 5 teams per division, that means there is always at least a single interleague game continuously throughout the year. I say… so? We’ve already accepted the premise that interleague is okay and here to stay, so why not allow a single interleague game a day rather than bunch them? The 15/15 split could allow for better pairing of teams, too, as “rivals” sort of like they do now. Perhaps actual rivalries could develop if each team had actual rivals. Right now the Pirates have no designated rival to play yearly due to the 16/14 split, but could, in theory, be paired with the Indians–the “Battle Of Ohio” clearly doesn’t matter to anyone in Ohio (or elsewhere). 15/15 means each team has a natural rival to pair with and each team plays the same number of games.
I should also state that no way is expansion an option. I can’t imagine where teams would be placed (El Paso is pretty big? Memphis? New Orleans?) and certainly the talent pool doesn’t need to be diluted any more. I think any 16/16 proposal is DOA.
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As a smaller change and also assuming the DH is here to stay, why not use the DH in NL parks and let the pitcher bat in AL parks. Let the Steinbrenners whine. A significant part of the logic when interleague was proposed was allowing the fans in one city to see teams they’d never see. Why not expand that to include different styles that the fans wouldn’t see? There is no real logic based on competitive arguments to making this change, but, if the goal of interleague is to create new interest in baseball and going to the games, it seems to me this kind of proposal would do just that. If the goal is to get casual fans interested, the allure of a totally different style of play would be quite the draw and help stave off some of the problems associated with letting interleague come to be seen as a part of the game (namely that the All-Star game and World Series seem less unique).
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As I alluded to in the last sentence, the All-Star game and World Series used to stand out for pitting players who would otherwise never face each other against each other. In the era of free agency, perhaps this was inevitable anyway and the effect of interleague is negligible; I am not sure. Regardless, if interleague is a reality, is there anything to be done to make the All-Star game unique or should we just allow it to be the exhibition it, at heart, is?