Interleague Play

With Interleague games starting this weekend I think that it’s a good time that we at MLB Daily Picks write about American and National League and differences between them.

Major League Baseball (MLB) consists of two leagues, National League and American League.

National League is older of two leagues and because of that sometimes called Senior Circuit. It was founded in 1876 and it replaced National Association of Professional Base Ball Players.

American League (or Junior Circuit) aspired to major league status in 1901. It developed from the Western League, which was minor league based in Great Lake states.

In 1903 two league champions met for the first time in World Series. In 1904 they failed to do so and since 1905 World Series has been played each year expect for strike-shortened 1994 season.

National League is divided into 3 divisions (East, Central and West) and consist of 16 teams. American league is also divided into 3 divisions (East, Central and West) and consist of 14 teams. This is done so in order that each league has an even number of teams and on each given day all teams can be playing (which wouldn’t be the case if both leagues had 15 teams).

Each team plays 162 games during the regular season and after the end of the regular season 8 teams proceed to the playoff games. Those 8 teams are 6 division winners and one wild card winner team from each league. Wild card winner is the team with the best record among the non-division winners. Winners of each league meet in a World Series.

Most important difference between American League and National League is that the American League allows a designated hitter, while National League does not. A designated hitter is a player that is allowed to bat in place of the pitcher each time he would otherwise come to the plate. Designated hitter (DH) rule was adopted by American League in 1973. For first 3 years DH rule wasn’t used in World Series. In 1976 it was decided that the DH rule will be applied in all World Series games, but only in even-numbered years. On 1986 this rule was adapted to the format that exists now, DH rule applies only in games played in American League ballparks.

One of the consequences of DH rule is that American League has a higher batting average then the National League, since pitchers are not as good hitters as other players this is something that was expected.

In 1997 Interleague play was introduced. First Interleague game was played in Arlington on June 12th between Texas and  San Francisco. This was the first time teams from American League and National League met during the regular season. Before 1997 those matchups were only possible during spring training, exhibition games and World Series. For the first 5 years of Interleague Play teams from each division played only teams from the same division in another league (AL East vs. NL East,…). Since 2002 a new format was introduced and now teams play Interleague games against various divisions. The DH rule is applied in the same manner as in World Series games.

Since 1997 American League teams have posted 1673-1534 record (.522).

Interleague play created some new rivalries, especially between the clubs from the same city or clubs which are from relatively close towns. They play annual home and road series. Those matchups are:

• New York Yankees – New York Mets (so called Subway Series)
• Los Angeles Angels – Los Angeles Dodgers (Freeway Series)
• Chicago White Sox – Chicago Cubs (Crosstown Classic)
• Oakland Athletics – San Francisco Giants (Bay Bridge Series)
• Tampa Bay Rays – Florida Marlins (Citrus Series)
• Texas Rangers – Houston Astros (Lone Star Series)
• Baltimore Orioles – Washington Nationals (Beltway Series)
• Kansas City Royals  – St. Louis Cardinals (I-70 Series)
• Cleveland Cavaliers – Cincinnati Reds (Ohio Cup)
• Minnesota Twins – Milwaukee Brewers
• Seattle Mariners – San Diego Padres (those two teams are not geographically close but they share a spring training base in Peoria, Arizona)

Remaining 8 teams are not paired up and they don’t have fixed annual Interleague matchups.

There are some pros and cons for Interleague play.

Among the positive things that Interleague games have brought is increase of interest and attendance, especially with above mentioned matchups or with possible rematches of previous World Series.

One of the major problems of Interleague play is unbalanced schedule. Not every team from one league plays all the teams from the other league. So, some teams might be playing mostly good teams from the other league and some might be playing only poor performing teams. For example, National League team St. Louis gets to play 6 games a year vs. Kansas City which is not very good last seasons and New York Mets have to play 6 games against New York Yankees.

Interleague games schedule is such that team plays one series during the third weekend of May and plays the rest of the games in June. American League teams play 18 interleague games per year, while most of the National League teams will play 15 games and rest of the teams will play 18 games.

All the best

Mr. Stretch