Its that time of year baseball purists love to hate: Interleague play is upon us!

A couple of intriguing series in the first set of matchups starting Tuesday:

Mariners at Phillies-team with the best record in MLB visit NL's #3 piching staff.

Yankees at Reds-Home Run Derby time!

Blue Jays at Cardinals-can the Jays stay hot against NL pitching?

Twins at Giants-division leaders, one cold, one hot.

Angels at San Juan Expos-defending champs will draw enthusiastic crowd in Puerto Rico.

But some real duds:

Tigers at Padres-what is this, the Little League World Series?

Indians at Rockies-name an Indian, go ahead I dare you.

Devil Rays at Cubs-watch the Rays try to figure out Prior and Wood!

Over the weekend, some other interesting pairings:

Yankees at Cubs-Yanks staff vs. Sosa; Cubs staff vs. Soriano.

Blue Jays at Reds-the way the Jays are scoring and the scoring machine that the Reds new stadium is, look out!

A's at Phillies-poor Phils draw M's and A's while Braves get Rangers and Pirates?

Plenty of duds though:

Twins at Padres
Royals at Rockies
White Sox at Dodgers
Indians at Diamondbacks
Devil Rays at Astros
Tigers at Giants
Red Sox at Brewers

-Mariners vs. Phillies ought to be very good.

-The Blue Jays have some of the best bats in the AL so the Cardinals have got to have superb pitching, which isn't happening--only Williams and Morris have been consistent.

-If the Yankees pitching can hold up against the Reds, they'll gain some wins and move up.

-Twins vs. Giants ought to be good.

-The Cubs could move up by slamming the Devil Rays; this is a freebie for them.

-Any team that faces the Brewers, the Padres, the Devil Rays, or the Tigers looks to gain a few wins.

I don't know why, but the whole situation with Clemens going for his 300th at Wrigley just rubs me the wrong way. I just don't like it. It just seems wrong for it to be against a NL team in an NL park. Maybe because so much, practically all, I guess, of Clemens' pitching has been in the AL and against AL teams, the 300th should be that way too. Maybe I'm just being picky, I don't know.

Whoever's playing, the weather's actually halfway nice in DC now, so I want to get tickets to some Os games. I haven't felt "in the mood" for an in-person baseball game all season.

Next week, everyone in Cardinal land is looking forward to our St. Louis boys visiting Fenway and Yankee Stadium. We would love for those teams to be coming our way (instead we get the Jays and Orioles), but everyone is looking forward to two potentially great matchups.

I, personally, do not care all that much for the interleague games. I think it is because of the imbalanced schedule it creates. And the fact that it is not an even trade. Having to travel to Fenway and Yankee Stadium would be fine, if it was a home and home situation. However, time does not allow for that many interleague games.

Mariners & Phillies should be a great series. I think the M's are going with Moyer, Meche & Pinero. After the Phillies the M's travel to NY to take on the Mets over the weekend.

I'm looking forward to next weekend when the Braves visits the Safe for the first time in a three game series. Now that's the interleague match-up I've been waiting for!

Well Steinbrenner is none too happy about interleague play this year. The jist of his discontent is that the Yanks have to play the Reds and Cubs while the Red Sox get the Pirates and Brewers. While Herr Steinbrenner can be an ass, he's got a point about the basic problem with interleague play. From ESPN.com:

Of course, Steinbush picked a year when the Yankees had a tough road for his complaints. Other teams are in the same boat -- the Braves have to play Oakland, the Mets (to name one East rival) do not (they get an extra series against the Milwaukee Seligs).

MLB needs to do the math and restore some sort of equity to the schedule.

I want interleague play to continue, but I agree there should be more equity in the scheduling. One way to do this would be to move an NL team to the AL so that each division consists of five teams. This would mean that there would always be at least one interleague series going on for the season. I don't see any problem with that.

Minnesota can thank the M's for knocking em down to the 7th best record in baseball after that 4 game sweep in the Metrodome. M's are now starting their interleague play with Philly the 10th best record in baseball. Next week the 6th best record in baseball "Montreal" will be in Safeco Field. Then the Match up between #2 Atlanta and #1 Seattle, with The Best Record in Baseball.

How about Moyer with a base hit and a sacrafice bunt. M's about to put this one away in the Philly rain.

[ June 03, 2003, 05:48 PM: Message edited by: 34ra ]

Listened to the talking heads on ESPN's Baseball Tonight on Monday. There were only a couple of games played that night on the eve of Interleague play, and their viewpoints struck the same chord that I had felt.

The previous format seemed to get more of this "right" than the current arrangement. Not that it was perfect; the six-game sets between natural rivals (i.e. Yanks-Mets) made sense for all of eight teams. NYC, the Bay Area, LA-Anaheim, and Chicago all meshed with the idea. All other matchups made little sense, and were beginning to generate underwhelming attendance.

Still, its a small quibble. The main thing was that MLB at least matched East vs. East, or Central vs. Central. With the same interleague teams on division rivals' schedules, it was hard to say interleague play was biased for or against anyone.

But this new version is awful. Wanna get rid of the "natural rivals"? Fine. But at least make the schedule equitable.

I would expect MLB to correct this flaw in 2004. Now if they can just kill Questec, everyone wins.

I should have this on a macro I've typed it so many times here but here goes:

Get rid of the American & National Leagues. Do away with the DH. Realign the teams in to 4 geographically based regions. At the end of the season, based on records, not the f**king All-Star game, 1 plays 4, 2 plays 3, the winners play in the World Series. For example the West would be:

Angels
Dodgers
Padres
Giants
A's
Mariners
Rockies

The Angels get the Expos, Fish, Phillies, Mets--but no Mo "Fat Tub of Goo" Vaughn to boo the hell out of and Dodgers. Except for the Dodgers, yawn. Of course, I'd like to see the Angels beat up on these teams to get back in the race. I can't go to see The Anaconda because getting to weeknight games is a nightmare from where I live. Oh well, I'll meet him someday....

[ June 03, 2003, 08:12 PM: Message edited by: Jim Allen ]

Three words: Make. The. Sacrifice. wink

Your plan is just too radical for my tastes. I want the National and American leagues to continue to exist.

Nah, I'll wait til the Phillies come to Dodger Stadium next year; it's 10 minutes from here. It tales are to be believed, the players parking lot at Dodger Stadium can be interesting after games.

f**king traditionalist purists.

I forgot to mention, I'd eliminate 6 teams: Montreal, Brewers, the two Florida teams and two others, preferably the Braves and Dodgers. OK, only kidding about the last two; I can dream, can't I? And two others, say the Pirates and the Blue Jays.

I know, the American and National league have evolved in to their own styles but damn! I don't really care about that stuff, I'm just thinking: make those rivalries mean something in the standings. Imagine a season where the Dodgers/Angeles and A's/Giants, Cubs/Sox, Cubs/Cards, Mets/Yanks are all in pennant struggles within their own divisions.

It's very far fetched and I know it'll never happen, but the way interleague play is now, the thrill is gone--I mean, the Angels still play the Dodgers home & away to end the exhibition season, so what's the point? Maybe just get rid of interleague play altogether?

[ June 03, 2003, 09:14 PM: Message edited by: Jim Allen ]

I wouldn't have the "traditional rivals" play each other every year. It might be good for the Yankees and Mets but some of the other so-called "traditional rivals" aren't meaningful. I mean, Phillies-Orioles? Other than getting to visit Camden Yards, why bother?

So I'd rotate it among all the divisions so you'd play a particular team in the other league once every 3 years. I'd also reduce interleague play so that they play two-game series instead of three, as part of adjusting the total number of games downward to shorten the season.

Woah! Talk about tradition, the 162 game season. OK, since, what, 1962? But shorten the season? Oh man, can you imagine the * that will be in place for records if there's less games? Has this actually been discussed? Frankly, I'm for a shorter season, say May-August, around 140 or so games, but I can't imagine the owners or players going for it.

[ June 03, 2003, 11:23 PM: Message edited by: Jim Allen ]

And they won't, JA.

Yeah, AU Tiger, can you imagine the owner's meeting:

Owner 1: You know, the season's just too f**king long. Let's cut it down.
Owner 2: But what about the lost revenue?!?!
Owner 1: Oh, it's more important to have better games because the players'll be fresher, keep people's attention because the season won't be a death march and not have the World Series in 30 degree weather back East.
Other Owners: Okey-dokey! You've convinced us!

Yeah, when pigs fly, then.

At first I was vehemently opposed to Interleague play. Now, I can tolerate it. I would prefer the M's to be in the NL only because I grew up following the Giants & Dodgers. I did enjoy it when the AL west played the NL west.

I don't know about this year with the AL west playing the NL east. It doesn't make any sense. The only good thing is, we get to see a team like Atlanta or even Montreal (which has a remote chance of being the future Portland team).

Old Man Moyer was simply masterful yesterday. Jamie has got to be one of the most well prepared pitcher in baseball. He's 9-2! Not bad for a 40-year old. And he also had an infield single. The only bad thing about playing in a NL city is the M's are without the services of Edgar

Tonight, our pup Gil Meche takes the mound. He's such a stud.

I'm glad Jim's plan will never fly. Anyone can see, if all teams were merely run by people who read "Moneyball," there's enough talent for 32 or 36 teams, not 24!

You have to love the irony of Detroit and San Diego, now the 2 worst teams, meeting for the first time since the '84 Series...

A while back some columnist suggested that an English soccer Premier League set-up might work for baseball (I didn't focus on the article so will rely on Jim Allen, please, to describe).

My guess is that the top 12-16 teams get placed for one season in the "Premier" league, while the Brewer-types get lumped in a secondary one. Then the worst Premier teams fall out the next season bringing in the better secondary ones. Of course, I'm probably way off ...

At any rate, I enjoy interleague play if only for the novelty of seeing some teams play each other. Plus my Brew Crew returns to B'more for the first time since the NL switch -- I'll be up at Camden on June 15!

[ June 04, 2003, 10:27 AM: Message edited by: DCBucky ]

Bill W., I totally, 110% percent disagree that there's enough pitching talent to go around; position players are easier to groom and maintain but pitching is a precious commodity that is always in short supply. The level of pitching now compared with, say, 20 years ago is abysmal in my view. NOTE: This is not a scientific reading of stats, just an impression. Though players juicing, a "rabbit" ball, smaller parks and so on are responsible for the surge in hitting, IMHO bad pitching is the main culprit. Mileage varies widely, obviously.

Bucky, a better way to put it would be this:

All the MLB teams would be ranked by record, with tiebreakers, of course. At the end of the season, the bottom 3 teams would be relegated to AAA ball. The top 2 AAA teams would move up to the majors (I detest the term "The Show") and #'s 3-6 would have a play-off tourney to see who gets the third slot. It's not workable because, unlike English football, there's no unified lower leagues, just a bunch of different AAA leagues, for example.

In England this year, the playoffs to see who went from Division 1 (=AAA) to the Premiership (MLB) were incredible. I'm not a supporter of any of the teams but the tension was palpable even to me; there's sooo much at stake. To go from Division 1 to the Premiership means a diffrence of about 27 million pounds (roughly $40 million) to a teams bottom line; to go from the Premiership to Division 1 is seen as a catastrophe and it is. Some teams that I was watching when I become a footie fanatic in the early 80's haven't been back to the top flight since.

f**k it, don't relegate the Brewers and the Florida teams, just eliminate 'em and spread the pitching around.

[ June 04, 2003, 05:35 PM: Message edited by: Jim Allen ]

No, no, no premiere league stuff with MLB!!! They already can't get the damned thing right after over 100 years!

Look, some of the teams *should* go, because the pitching situation is and has been ridiculous for many years. For every Gil Meche or Mark Prior, there are 2-3 really awful pitchers who couldn't tell the strike zone from the Gulf of Mexico. This year the league ERAs have fallen a little, but a few years ago they were so high I think anyone with even a passable left arm could have gotten a contract. Is Jesse Orozco still pitching? I think that says it all. Where's Dennis Martinez when you need him?

I think Milwaukee (sorry Brewers fans) has served its usefulness; Selig's Brewboys are abominable year in, year out and should go. Also, Detroit is become perenially pathetic, so either move to San Antonio or something, or get your act together. Does the anti-abortion pizza multimillionaire Catholic fanatic still own them? At least they won under him. The same goes for San Diego, the two Florida jokes, and Montreal, though that team's main problem is grossly low attendance. Les quebeckers n'ont plus envie de regarder le base-ball.

I actually *love* interleague play. I used to have it but now I love to see American league pitchers have to bat--and some can; Corey Lidle got a hit today against the Cardinals--and the cross-league rivalries (Mets-Yanks, Cards-Royals, Cubs-WhiteSux, etc.) also are pretty interesting. The current 2003 version, though, is just bizarre. Misweighted, strange pair-ups, etc.; it doesn't make any sense.

As for Fatsobrenner, he really ought to shut up and just let his team play. Maybe he'll spontaneously combust one of these days, let's say Saturday, as the Yankees get hammered by the Cubs. At least ONE win against the Yanks will be a little bit of sweet victory for the Cubbies.

I'm just glad the Cardinals have played well so far. Morris beat that hot Toronto lineup, and Jason--"Can I Serve You a Homer, Sir"--Simontacchi actually won tonight! Tomorrow Woody pitches--shut 'em down, Woody!

[ June 04, 2003, 09:27 PM: Message edited by: fantomas ]

I haven't looked at the 2003 schedule very closely, but when interleague play was first explained to me and the weird 6 games of interleague rivarly came up, I immediately saw the potential for seriously misweighted schedules. It would be only a matter of time that two teams fighting for first would have one team playing a top contender in the interleague rivarly and the other playing a bottom feeder.

Steinbrenner didn't seem to mind so much when the Yankees played the Mets for 6 games, while the Red Sox played the Braves.

I think the anti-abortion (and anti-gay) pizza multimillionaire Catholic fanatic you're referring to Tom Monaghan, who used to own Domino's Pizza. The pizza guy who owns the team now is Mike Ilitch, the owner of Little Caesar's (who may also be anti-abortion and a Catholic fanatic for all I know).

One cool thing about interleague play when the teams go to the NL parks is that the game is returned in part to its pre DH-form; and what's fascinating to me is how many AL pitchers actually can hit, and how many AL managers actually know how to strategize without the present of the DH. The AL should abolish the DH, as soon as possible. Make pitchers hit, deal with pitching inside, and run the bases just like the great pitchers of the past did. What makes many of the NL pitchers lreally impressive to me is that in some cases they literally have had to win games not only by pitching but by hitting and running as well. The AL takes that option out completely.

A couple of great series coming up at the Safe. First the team with the 4th best record in baseball, The Montreal-San Juan-Portland-North Virginia-D.C. Expos come here with a 37-26 record, then Atlanta comes here, tied for the best record in baseball with the Mariners at 42-19. How about those M's today winning the double header with the Mets by a combined score of 20-1, Freddy Garcia with a complete game and we are starting to expect shut-outs from Moyer.

I can't wait to see the Braves this coming weekend and finally get to see what all the hulabaloo about Javy is...

M's went 11-1 on this last road trip...and it was 11-1 without the services of Edgar. Moyer has been simply amazing this season and it looks like The Chief has finally regained his form. Transcontinental Expos visit the Safe first. Too bad Vlad is out. Studly Gil Meche gets the start on Tuesday. Go M's!

This isnt fair! How come the Mariners get such a tough schedule? They have to play the Expos and the Braves. While other teams like the slacking skankees get an easy schedule??? The Yankees are behind this unfair schedule making, they are such cheaters!

Interesting column by YES' Michael Kay:

Interleague Inequities

Excerpt:

Would it be best to consolidate the two leagues and eliminate the need to deal with these interleague issues alltogether?

Off the bat, I can see one immediate (if parochial) issue, in that this would mean fewer Sox/Yankees matchups. On the other hand, we'd all have an opportunity to see every team come to town.

Some of the better matchups this weekend:

Blue Jays at Expos-Who'd have thought this series would be relevant for either team, let alone both! Jays just 1 1/2 out of first.

Red Sox at Phillies-Phils trying to stay in tight Wild Card race while BoSox are only 1 behind Yanks.

Yankees at Mets-Nothing Mets would like more than to help knock Yanks out of first place.

Royals at Cardinals-Surprising KC is still hanging around after pounding Twins in 3 of 4 while Cards are only 1 out of first in tight NL Central.

Giants at Athletics-A's lead AL Wild Card and have won 6 straight, while Giants lead is down to 1 game.

Angels at Dodgers-If Angels plan on making a run, they'd better not wait too long. Dodgers are hot on Giants trail and have won 8 of 10.

White Sox at Cubs-Sox, like Mets, would love to knock higher profile Cubs out of first. A Cubs sweep could cost Jerry Manuel his job.

ESPN is shoving this down our throats for the Sunday night game. I assume most of the country will see it on Fox tomorrow as well...and if they play next weekend, then I guess we'll get a repeat?

since mets are out of it, they might as well spoil the yankee party.

Well for whatever its worth, a poll on ESPN.com asked which regional interleague matchup you'd most like to see. The choices were Cubs/Sox, Yanks/Mets, Cards/Royals, Giants/A's and Dodgers/Angels. I didn't see the final results, but the Yanks/Mets led by a substantial margin.

ESPN low-level employees are sitting around voting in that poll all day. wink

I think the premise behind that would be to create a situation where a bottom feeding major league team *cough* Devil Rays *cough* would get "relegated" to the next lower rung (ala Class AAA) and a top AAA team would get promoted to the major leagues.

In basketball, that would have meant that the Clippers would have been in the CBA for years.

Actually, after Billy Bean came out, didn't the Tigers say he was always welcome in Detroit and he'd always be considered a Tiger? Under Mike Ilitch?

For those of you who feel that some teams got an unfair advantage because of the various interleague matchups, the lowly Padres took two of three from the mighty Mariners. wink

Meanwhile, at the Vet, the Steve Carlton bobblehead giveaway was attended by 60,960--8th largest regular-season crowd ever at the Vet, and the largest since the 1993 home opener. A nice crowd to see the first major league shutout by Brett Myers. The game also featured this amusing moment in the 5th inning:

I'm very sad. Losing 2 of 3 to the Padres :confused: I know the Padres have been on a sort of roll, but come on! I think the M's just want to make the AL west race interesting & keep Oakland close. Yeah, that's it. That's the ticket.

Hey, the interleague stuff is back this weekend!

We've got Boston scoring 10 runs before the third Florida pitcher of the first inning finally got the first out--14 runs in all in the first inning of a 25-8 rout. They had 28 hits, Johnny Damon hit a single, double and triple--all in the first inning!

Also, the Yankees beat the Mets (yawn), the White Sox beat the Cubs...and the Phils and Orioles are tied at 1-1 going into the 17th inning of a game in which starter Brandon Duckworth left after one inning (allowing the only run) when he was hit on his pitching arm by a line drive. So, 15 consecutive shutout innings by the Phils' bullpen--even Mesa! eek!

Update: 3-run bomb by Jason Michaels gives the Phils a 4-1 lead in the 17th! The Orioles got a solo homer with one out by Matos in the 17th but that was it. Carlos Silva 3 innings, Rheal Cormier 3 innings, Turk Wendell 2 innings, Terry Adams 2 innings, Jose Mesa 3 innings! eek! , Dan Plesac 2 innings. Hector Mercado pitched the 17th and gave up the only run the bullpen allowed. Extraordinary! And the Phils are now in second place in the NL East.

[ June 27, 2003, 09:51 PM: Message edited by: Joe in Philly ]

A bizarre game, Joe. Besides Damon, who had a total of five hits in seven at-bats, DH David Ortiz also hit one short of the cycle, with a single, a double and a HR -- although not in a single inning like Damon. Btw, the Phillies held the previous record for runs scored before the first out, with nine against the New York Giants on Aug 13, 1948.

The Red Sox half of the first inning took 50 minutes, during which three Marlins pitchers threw the ball 91 times.

Marlins pitcher Kevin Olsen was hit in the back of the head by a line drive off Todd Walker during the seventh inning. He didn't lose consciouness, and the hospital reports this morning that his injury appears to be minor.

So the Padres beat the Mariners 2 of 3 again??? I guess that's why they play the games! wink