Woe Is Interleague Play

by Eric Simon on Jun 12, 2009 2:10 PM EDT

I hate interleague play. I think it's a pox on the sport and would much sooner see the Mets play the other National League divisions' teams a second time than any team in the American League. Further, suiting up against the junior circuit during the regular season cheapens the World Series to some extent -- less so than when free agency defections were less prolific and game highlights not so ubiquitous, but there's still a very real perceptive degradation in the novelty of only playing the other league's team in the Fall Classic.

So the Mets play the Yankees this weekend. Whoop-dee-doo.

Poll

What do you think of interleague play?

It stinks. Eliminate it.

136 votes

It's okay. I could take or leave it.

173 votes

I love it. It's the best thing to happen to baseball since steroids.

89 votes

398 votes | Poll has closed

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Read More: interleague play, New York Mets

Comments

Me, I'm all:

meh.

"He's definitely mixing it into his repertoire. That's French for 'repertoire' " - Keith Hernandez

by Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright on Jun 12, 2009 2:11 PM EDT reply actions

I'm with you Eric

I hate it. It is ridiculous to make a team change the rules that they play by in the middle of the season, the teams are in different leagues so it is just stupid. If the AL didn’t use a DH I might be more into it. Not to mention the unbalanced schedule. The Mets and Yankees play every year, and I haven’t even checked the other teams schedules this year, but it almost always is a disadvantage for the Mets and the team in the NL East who has to play the Sox. I think interleague play is just another failed idea by the idiot we know simply as Bud.

"It's like the old phrase goes.....The balls in your court now Mr.Church, so you take that ball, you dribble it up the court and....................................... get a layup"
- Keith Hernandez

by nrmax88 on Jun 12, 2009 2:17 PM EDT reply actions

But, but....

The slotting system! And the luxury tax!!

"All energy flows according to the whims of the great magnet

What a fool I was to defy him"

-HST

by Mark Himmelstein on Jun 12, 2009 2:19 PM EDT up reply actions

interleague in general is a travesty, but maybe keep the rivalry games

Thing is, the Mets-Yanks, SF-Oak, White Sox-Cubs rivalry games keep everyone so fired up, and keep selling so many tickets, that we might not stand a chance of getting rid of interleague entirely while they remain. And, to be honest, they’re sometimes kind of fun — my demotivation this year has to do with the Mets’ and Yanks’ recent suckitude rather than the subway-series concept. I think it’s a better goal to cut interleague down to one set of home-and-away rivalry series — and nothing for teams without a real historical interleague rival. If we can axe the random games the Mets play every year against Kansas City or Minnesota, the Yankees games are a small price to pay in exchange.

Or, plan B: get rid of the fucking designated hitter already and I’m fine with NL-AL play continuing.

by anonymous on Jun 12, 2009 2:20 PM EDT reply actions

If you held a gun to my head

I’d say scrap interleague play. But I really don’t care much. The way I see it, its just fodder to distract people like Steve Phillips from discussing actual baseball issues, which can wind up being offensive.

"All energy flows according to the whims of the great magnet

What a fool I was to defy him"

-HST

by Mark Himmelstein on Jun 12, 2009 2:21 PM EDT reply actions

lol

Funny how Steve Phillips always starts out his sentences with…. “If I was running a team”. If anybody cared how he would run a team, he wouldn’t be sitting next to Joe Morgan in the Sunday night dipshit booth.

"It's like the old phrase goes.....The balls in your court now Mr.Church, so you take that ball, you dribble it up the court and....................................... get a layup"
- Keith Hernandez

by nrmax88 on Jun 12, 2009 2:58 PM EDT up reply actions

Hah, exactly

If anyone ever started a blog dedicated to Steve Phillips, I’d hope they wouldn’t be nearly so kind as to suggest he merely get fired.

"All energy flows according to the whims of the great magnet

What a fool I was to defy him"

-HST

by Mark Himmelstein on Jun 12, 2009 3:32 PM EDT up reply actions

I enjoy the interleague play

Despite it’s problems because it’s fun just as baseball should be.

by TheBigStapler on Jun 12, 2009 2:25 PM EDT reply actions

I like the mets v yankees games

The other games are okay but its not a neccesity. Whatever. To me, it’s just another game on the schedule that the Mets should try to win.

by meigs1414 on Jun 12, 2009 2:34 PM EDT reply actions

I, too, enjoy the Mets-Yanks if for nothing more than the 'bragging rights' associated with it

And also, say the Mets make the playoffs by 1 game…and beat the Yanks 4 times this year…you could say those wins against the Yanks got them in.

But, I also have to say that I don’t necesarily hate the Yankees…I don’t really care about them.

I do hate the Phils though

by metsman07 on Jun 12, 2009 2:46 PM EDT up reply actions

What if the Mets miss the playoffs by one game.....

because they played the Yankees 6 times and the Reds win the wild card because they got to play the Indians 6 times?

"It's like the old phrase goes.....The balls in your court now Mr.Church, so you take that ball, you dribble it up the court and....................................... get a layup"
- Keith Hernandez

by nrmax88 on Jun 12, 2009 2:59 PM EDT up reply actions

not enough of an argument

as Reds’ and Mets’ schedules are way too different anyway.

by alexSVK on Jun 12, 2009 3:08 PM EDT up reply actions

It was just an example.

But the idea that the Mets (who have missed the playoffs twice by one game), cannot end up on the outside looking in because the Cards play the Royals 6 times, the Reds play Cleveland 6 times, or whatever, is just wrong. I don’t know what their schedules have to do with it, if at the end of the day, the 6 easy games the Cards or Reds play vs the 6 games the Mets play vs the best team in the league end up being the difference. You can’t control how good the teams within your division are, so obviously the schedule will always be unbalanced. But when the out of division schedule is just as unbalanced, there is something seriously wrong.

"It's like the old phrase goes.....The balls in your court now Mr.Church, so you take that ball, you dribble it up the court and....................................... get a layup"
- Keith Hernandez

by nrmax88 on Jun 12, 2009 3:22 PM EDT up reply actions

I was just saying if that were the case...

There would be some satisfation there.

Bottom line is you still have to win the games

by metsman07 on Jun 12, 2009 4:12 PM EDT up reply actions

I hate it

and I don’t really understand how people get amped about the Mets and the Yankees playing regular season games after the real Subway Series in 2000. The fact that they had played each other so many times over the previous few seasons and had all those stats against each other kinda spoiled the whole thing a bit for me. It added the ridiculous “Clemens vs. Piazza” subplot, but other than that I felt it added absolutely nothing to the allure of the series that we knew things like “Jeter hits Mets pitching well.”

And if they’re gonna stick with interleague play, make it something sensible like they have in the NFL, where every team plays the exact same number of games against the exact same opposing conference teams. The way it is now is farcical.

by cjmulrain on Jun 12, 2009 2:34 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs

Actually...

… to clarify, NFL scheduling doesn’t work in the way you describe. It’s actually a pretty close correlate to the MLB schedule (“imbalanced” insofar as each team plays each division opponent twice, then all members of another division in the opposing conference, and a random assortment of in-conference opponents).

It’s really only fair within each division (and even then, only in terms of in-division and interconference games).

by LeiterMilnerFasterStronger on Jun 12, 2009 4:05 PM EDT up reply actions

I'm saying in regards to "interleague"

in that all 4 NFC East teams will play all 4 teams from whichever AFC conference they are scheduled to play.

Really there’s no way to balance a schedule between different divisions unless you’re going to completely equalize the schedule amongst all teams, so the Mets would play the Phillies, the Yankees, and the Royals the same amount of times each season as would, say, the Dodgers. But it’s asinine to me that they have the unbalanced intraleague schedule PLUS an uneven inerleague schedule means that there’s a complete competitive imbalance. Neither the teams competing for a division title OR the teams competing for a wild card play the same schedule. It’s just silly.

by cjmulrain on Jun 12, 2009 4:37 PM EDT up reply actions

how could you not vote option C?

steroids were an incredible boon to the game of baseball and we should all be thanking thier molecular asses right now.

All of the mets fans hope that we will not see the bad news mets ever again.

by kendynamo on Jun 12, 2009 2:38 PM EDT reply actions

I keep meaning to make up t-shirts

Steroids: The best thing to happen to baseball since the baseball.

by Eric Simon on Jun 12, 2009 3:20 PM EDT up reply actions

Come off your high horses

I don’t mind it for 12 games a year out of 162. One series with the Yankees per year is enough though, and just alternate the venue. I like how the lineup looks with a DH (in the years when our lineup looks respectable). I like seeing Wright go up against Rivera (and beat him back in ’06) and seeing how we match up against AL teams. For the most part, Mets have seemed to do pretty well against the AL, unlike the rest of the NL.

I don’t think we need to play within the division 18 to 19 times a year or whatever that is. I get sick of the Nats and Marlins and their empty stadiums after awhile. 14-16 games would be plenty, and then play the central and west 10-12 times a year like they used to. One trip all year to Wrigley field is idiotic.

by David G on Jun 12, 2009 2:43 PM EDT reply actions

Amen

I wouldn’t mind not seeing another Nats/Florida game all year. The way it is now, i am sick of NL East games and always prefer watching games vs non division opponents.

by JDizzzy on Jun 12, 2009 3:04 PM EDT up reply actions

I generally like interleague play

It’s cool. You get a taste for the other league and other parks and teams.

However, is it fair that we have to play 9 games against the Yankees and Sox this year? Absolutely not.

Jerry Manuel...stop being....stupid...

by MetsGeek on Jun 12, 2009 2:48 PM EDT reply actions

Interleague play gets an F, for many reasons.

- It cheapens the World Series.
- It shows no regard for the history of the game or the leagues.
- It lessens intraleague rivalries (the Mets see the Yankees the same number of times as they see the Cubs, the Dodgers, the Reds, or the Astros—that’s so weak).
- Some of the “rivalries” are totally made up and stupid, but MLB plows ahead with them anyway (Dodgers/Angels: does one team’s fans even know the other team’s fans exist? Marlins/Rays: Does either team even have fans?).
- The games are not distributed equitably in terms of strength of schedule (for years and years, the Marlins get to beat up on the Devil Rays while the Mets play the Yankees, or the Cardinals beat up on the Royals while the Cubs face the White Sox, etc.).

When I’m commissioner, I’m getting rid of interleague play, the stupid All-Star/homefield rule, and artificial turf, among other things. I also might have to make a rule that says a team gets contracted or sold if it has more than 10 or 12 straight losing seasons.

We've got ourselves a ball club, the Mets of New York town!

by kingcritical on Jun 12, 2009 2:58 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs

But then we lose the Pirates and that beautiful park!

Get rid of the DH while you’re at it.

by meigs1414 on Jun 12, 2009 3:11 PM EDT up reply actions

that's why I said "or sold"

Sell the Pirates to an owner who cares just a little, and maybe they will cease to be so miserable.

Regarding the DH: yeah, it’s stupid, but that’s why the AL is the junior circuit. Let ’em be lame like that if they want. The NL will always be the real baseball.

We've got ourselves a ball club, the Mets of New York town!

by kingcritical on Jun 12, 2009 3:17 PM EDT up reply actions

I agree on the point

About the history of the leagues. I wouldn’t mind if both leagues were completely seperate like they used to be (different umps, etc, etc.)

I think interleague should be minimized to 2 weekends a season…makes it more of a novelty and widens the time that teams face each other

by metsman07 on Jun 12, 2009 4:16 PM EDT up reply actions

Interleague is more gooder

I just wish they would drop the cross town rivalry business. I never really understood why people dont like interleague. It doesn’t cheapen the world series at all. The Mets already play Philly, Atlanta, Wash and Florida way too often. Enough is enough.

They should rotate playing one division from the other league each year for a home and home series. So after 4 years you would see all MLB teams.

by JDizzzy on Jun 12, 2009 2:59 PM EDT reply actions

Exactly

This is exactly how I feel. Rotate the divisions year to year in interleague play. It is interesting to see the different match ups. As a baseball fan, no team is inherently uninteresting, because they come from say Kansas City for instance. That would also eliminate the Met’s disavdantage of having to play the Yankees more than their NL competitors.

by whiskybravo on Jun 12, 2009 3:29 PM EDT up reply actions

It's OK to mix things up

Baseball during the summer is kinda like a porno. You have some interleague play, then they cut to some hot division rivaliries, and end with a big interleague mess after everyone is happy. The only thing that is missing is like three different games happening on the field at once. That would be awesome. I could watch that for 10-15 minutes a time – all the time!

Grission and Husart - that is either the non-union Mexican equivelant of "Starsky and Hutch" or the key to winning the World Series.

by IanB in MD on Jun 12, 2009 3:32 PM EDT reply actions 5 recs

Haha, +1

and wtf

by James Kannengieser on Jun 12, 2009 3:34 PM EDT up reply actions

Sick work, doggie

"He's definitely mixing it into his repertoire. That's French for 'repertoire' " - Keith Hernandez

by Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright on Jun 12, 2009 4:17 PM EDT up reply actions

Glad you liked it, brother.

Grission and Husart - that is either the non-union Mexican equivelant of "Starsky and Hutch" or the key to winning the World Series.

by IanB in MD on Jun 12, 2009 4:32 PM EDT up reply actions

Rec'd

Hilarious

"All energy flows according to the whims of the great magnet

What a fool I was to defy him"

-HST

by Mark Himmelstein on Jun 12, 2009 5:07 PM EDT up reply actions

lol

"It's like the old phrase goes.....The balls in your court now Mr.Church, so you take that ball, you dribble it up the court and....................................... get a layup"
- Keith Hernandez

by nrmax88 on Jun 12, 2009 5:08 PM EDT up reply actions

rec'd

unfortunately, I’m picturing a naked bench-clearing brawl kinda like the naked pyramid in the time-travel episode of South Park

by hotspur on Jun 13, 2009 12:41 PM EDT up reply actions

Cant wait till Mets Vs Rays

Seriously, I have tickets to 3 games in the series. Im looking forward to seeing Evan Longoria.

Lopez wants it away, and it's hit deep to left center, Andruw Jones on the run, this one has a chance... home run!!, Mike Piazza!, and the Mets lead 3 to 2!!
-Howie Rose
Gary Thorne=Simply the Best!

by The American Mr.Hockey on Jun 12, 2009 3:59 PM EDT reply actions

I'm going to one of those games too.

"I dunno. I never smoked any Astroturf"
-Tug McGraw

by squid92 on Jun 12, 2009 6:00 PM EDT up reply actions

I just was watching the cubs game and saw heilman give up some runs

Kinda makes me not feel as bad about the recent losses, at least we make it to extra innings instead of losing in the 7th

also, I kinda like interleague play, it was cool getting to play at Fenway this year and SNY did a great job showing off the stadium.

by Delgado on Jun 12, 2009 4:34 PM EDT reply actions

Eh, it's ok.

"I dunno. I never smoked any Astroturf"
-Tug McGraw

by squid92 on Jun 12, 2009 5:47 PM EDT reply actions

I actually enjoy interleague play, it changes things up and you get to see other teams play.

However, in all games, regardless of home field, the DH (which is the biggest travesty in baseball, on the same plane as steroids) should not be apart of the game. It’s a huge advantage to have David Ortiz over whoever the ninth man off the bench is for a NL team or in many cases the backup catcher playing and having the starter catch just to give him a break.

"We must win and we must know how to win rather than win because we have statistical people."

by Evan_S on Jun 12, 2009 5:56 PM EDT reply actions