My thoughts on Interleague play
Posted on December 8, 2008
Filed Under Baseball Miscellaneous | Leave a Comment
My good buddy Peter at Baseball Reflections put together a roundtable of bloggers with one main subject of commentary: how do you feel about interleague play? I happen to be very lazy and don’t check my e-mail nearly enough so I missed out on it. But if I had been drinking Kevin Youkilis’ slumpbuster, maybe I’d have had more energy and my answers would look a bit like this:
1. Do you like/dislike MLB’s Interleague Play?
I love interleague play.
2. What do you like/dislike about it?
I love baseball and I try to watch every game that is on; however, I never get to watch a 3-game series with the same team. With IP, I get to see 3 starting pitchers as well as the majority of a team’s utility players and outfielders. Not to mention the Red Sox usually dominate NL teams so it’s nice to watch them add a few more wins to the board 
3. In your opinion, should ALL pitchers know how to hit given today’s free agency and how frequently players change teams and leagues?
Sure, all pitchers SHOULD know how to hit. With that said, I would prefer that they stick to throwing the ball and not swinging a bat. We all saw what happened last year when ‘Captain Overweight’ (Bartolo Colon) tried to hit.
4. Are you in favor of a good hitting pitcher, like Arizona’s Micah Owings or CC Sabathia, being used a pinch hitter or a pinch runner if he’s fast?
Not at all. It is SO much easier to find a quick pinch runner than it is to find an ace pitcher (in CC Sabathia’s case anyway.) As for pinch hitting, if a guy pitches terribly but swings the bat well (Micah Owings), then sure, why not?
5. Should the DH remain in the AL? Should it be added to the NL?
Everyone in the AL loves the DH. Everyone in the NL hates the DH. To each their own, right?
6. Do you like the insistence on natural rivalries like Boston and Philadelphia, Cubs and White Sox, Mets and Yankees, etc. or do you find them to be forced more than anything?
I think these ‘fake rivalries’ are the dumbest thing in the world. Yes, the Cubs/WSox and Yankees/Mets can battle it for pride in their respective cities. But why in the world would the Red Sox care about the Braves? I don’t see how there is any rivalry there, at least not anymore so than in every other regular season game.
7. In your opinion, should interleague play be longer or shorter? Why?
I think it’s fine the way it is. Enough games so that you can giggle at AL pitchers trying to hit, and enough games so that you can watch NL teams use a guy that hits .225 as their DH. Fun times!
8. What teams would you like to see play each other more often?
I could care one less one way or the other. I would like it to be a random sampling of teams every season. None of this ‘Boston vs. Atlanta’ fake rivalry crap.
9. If you had a say in the matter, what changes would you make in interleague play?
Nothing that I can think of.
10. This is not exactly a strict regular season interleague play question, but here it goes anyway. Do you think that the All-Star game should decide who gets home field advantage in the World Series? Why?
Sure, why not? A coin-flip is completely random and arbitrary. The team with the best record throughout the season is also a crappy way to determine home-field advantage. Maybe they should do it like college football does. Just because a team gets to beat up on lowly teams all season long (I’m looking at you Anaheim Angels of 2008) doesn’t mean that they’re the best team and deserve homefield advantage.
Anyway, those are my answers. Check out everyone else’s here.
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