Trust me on this one, unless asked, nobody in the Mets’ clubhouse is talking about the Yankees.
“I’d rather not play them,’’ Mets manager Willie Randolph said. “To me, interleague play has run its course.’’
Players and managers from both teams this week, of course, will say it’s great for the fans, but aren’t many of those fans ones with corporate connections? They say those things because they think that’s what you want to hear.
Truth it, Randolph is right. Interleague play has run its course. Actually, it never should have had a course. Most players hate it, and believe the Subway Series is more trouble than its worth.
Major League Baseball will point to sellouts this weekend at Shea and later at Yankee Stadium, and mention the Cubs and White Sox. But, truth is, outside those four teams and maybe the ones in LA, it’s not that big a deal.
More than half the teams don’t have what you’d call a natural rival.
Even so, Major League Baseball will come out with all sorts of attendance figures this weekend, but it is bogus. Some teams, with their taxpayer-built stadiums, sell out anyway, so how can you differentiate between an interleague sellout and a regular one?
You can’t.
And, when you’re hearing these attendance numbers don’t forget the weather is getting better and we’re talking the weekend, when kids aren’t in school. When we talk crowds for Reds and Royals in the middle of the week in April, I’ll listen.
Until then, you can make the figures read anything you want.
Let’s put it this way. If interleague play were anything but a gimmick, then why not have it all the time? If the public were really interested in seeing teams from the other league, then why don’t they schedule it that way all the time?
The supposed argument for interleague play is it provides a gate spike for the bottom feeders, teams like Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay and Florida.
Just wondering, but how did the Yankees and Red Sox playing in Montreal help the Expos?
Personally, I’d rather see them bag interleague and go with a balanced schedule, where every team plays every other team the same number of times. That is a true, fair schedule.
They way it worked for over 100 years before baseball started this nonsense.
And, it will always be nonsense.
4 Comments
I don’t mind interleague play as much as you do but six games between the Yankees-Mets, White Sox-Cubs is too much.
As for scheduling, I’d like to see the 18-19 divisional games done away with so more NL/AL teams can come into NY twice.
As somone that remembers the old NL East and the old Al East, it’s always disappointing to see the schedules released and only see the Cardinals come to Shea once or the White Sox visit the Yankees once.
Larry …
I know what you mean … I want no interleague at all, but if they insist, six is too much. I’d rather see four … two in each park.
I’d rather see more games with the Cardinals for the Mets and Indians for the Yankees than extra interleague games that carry little interest.
No question about it.
John
you say players don’t like it. but is that more of a mentality among veteran players than younger players. Because I’d think guys like Jose Reyes and David Wright would be excited to go to Fenway.
Larry …
You make a good point. A lot of players I talk to don’t like it because it screws up the competitive balance of their pennant races. That’s young and older players, alike.
They admit the Subway Series is exciting and like going to new places, but at the same time they also talk about the need to focus on the Braves and Phillies more than the Yankees.
More of the older players are aware of the scheduling flukes. The Mets, for example, have 18 games each against Philly and the Braves, plus six with the Yankees, which is a tougher schedule than the west division teams might have.
This factors in especially with the wild card.
I bought in a long time ago to the integrity of the schedule, that each team runs the same race to the finish line. I think interleague and the unbalanced schedule alters that.
John