G vs Sami Vol 3

I like to think of myself as a Baseball purist. I hate the DH, love a pitchers duel, appreciate the stolen base and squeeze bunt, and wish pitch counts never existed. Of course there are a few aspects of the game that I enjoy and are not accepted by "purists", one of those being interleague play.

The complaint I have heard the most is the idea that for the most part the interleague matchups lack excitement. While i agree that a mid June contest between the Royals and Rockies is not going to make me run to the park in excitement, neither is a game between the Royals and Rangers. Just because a game is in the same Division, let alone the same League, does not bring anything extra to the table. Ask yourself this: Who is a bigger rival Mets & Yankees or Mets & Nationals? The Cubs and White Sox or the Cubs and Rockies.

I understand that the Mets and Yankees is a bad example because most teams do not have a true natural rival. There are however other positives that can come from these unique games such as Barry Bonds playing at Yankee Stadium, or the Red Sox going to Wrigley or the Cubbies to Fenway. These games also help the teams that struggle to draw fans get people to the stadium if the matchup is right.

For a quick example, you can look at the 2006 Flordia Marlins schedule and attendance. When the division rival Atlanta Braves came to town on June 13-15, the TOTAL attendance for all three games was 22,199 compared to 94,048 two weeks later for the Red Sox. Having the Red Sox go to Florida helped a smaller market team draw almost 5 times the amount of fans they normally do, which is definitely a step in the right direction.

For the teams that do have normal rivals, the excitement of those teams coming to town only adds to the Baseball experience.

The bottom line is a Baseball game is a Baseball game and every win counts the same in the standings. If the Phillies lose to the Royals and the Mets beat the Braves, the Mets still gain only 1 game in the standings on the Phills.

The point of interleague play is not to create a game that is more important than a divisional game, but instead to add another element that may not have existed otherwise. If the American and National Leagues want to play each other 15 times a year and it is going to bring positives to the game without hurting anything, then I say let it happen.