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Interleague play is back
You remember interleague baseball. That time of the year when the Mets and Yankees play two series each, when the Angels and Dodgers, Cubs and White Sox, Giants and Athletics do too, and when the Pirates have to be content with only one crack against those hated Detroit Tigers.
Or maybe you aren't thinking about interleague play just yet because the Pirates haven't dipped their toe in those waters. While 28 other teams crossed league boundaries this weekend, the Pirates were stuck with the Milwaukee Brewers, a team that had the distinction of being an interleague foe in 1997 and a divisional rival the following season.
That the Pirates and Brewers weren't involved in interleague play this weekend scratches the surface of why National League teams playing American Leagues is a messy and ill-conceived notion.
For five years, baseball's braintrust force-fed interleague play on us, while maintaining that an East vs. East, Central vs. Central and West vs. West format wasn't stale. Of course, it grew stale about three years ago, but it wasn't until this season that something was done.
Interleague play was too lucrative to large-market teams to simply vanish, so the braintrust decided to spruce it up by rotating the schedule all the while keeping some of these so-called geographical rivalries intact.
The rotation supposedly was done in the interest of fairness. But Bud Selig's definition of fair must be different than the one written in most copies of Webster's Dictionary. Consider that National League Central teams play 12 interleague games while teams from the East and West play 18.
Is it fair for, say, the Reds to play six fewer interleague games than the Giants? It's feasible that these two teams could be involved in the wild-card race. If the Reds edge the Giants by one game, imagine the outcry in San Francisco. While the Giants were enjoying their home-and-home series with the A's, the Reds were playing divisional series and deciding their fate in the NL standings.
Other scheduling quirks have the Braves playing teams from all three American League divisions and the Pirates playing three AL West teams but not the marquee team of the division, the first-place Mariners. That's where those hated Tigers come in.
The reason for such irregularities is not solely because the NL has two more teams than the AL, with six playing in the Central. It's about the appeasement done to the large-market teams and others that must keep so-called geographical rivalries intact. It's why teams in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and the Bay Area get to play six games without leaving the same area code.
It's why the battle of Missouri must be contested on a home-and-home basis again, as the Cardinals and Royals play two three-game series. It's why those few Texans who are tired of counting down the days until the start of high school football season can continue the debate over whether the Astros are better than the Rangers. They also play six times this month.
For some reason, the two Ohio teams aren't playing two series this year. Heck, the Indians and Reds aren't even playing one. Neither are the Pirates and Indians, a rivalry that makes as much geographical sense and is closer in distance than Cincinnati is to Cleveland.
No, those teams won't be involved in interleague matchups, but the great Minnesota-Wisconsin border war will be waged at the Metrodome and Miller Park this month. In college football, these two universities play for some sort of wooden bucket, jug or other fabled prize. In baseball, the Brewers and Twins weren't even in the same division when both teams played in the American League.
Meanwhile, the Pirates and Phillies share the same state, the same league and they used to share the same division. But they play six times in six months this year. If you're counting, that's the same number of times the Mets will play the Yankees in June.
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Joe Rutter covers the Pirates for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
