My Two Cents (or, more accurately, my 1,200 words) on How to Improve Interleague Play in Major League Baseball

I said in my post two weeks ago that I would share an opinion on Interleague play in Major League Baseball. Basically, there are a few things we have to accept:

1. Interleague games are here to stay. They are too big a cash cow for the league to discontinue.
2. The current way games are scheduled and opponents are selected are clunky, at best.
3. Teams have a lot of issues with interleague play, especially American League teams that lose their DH in National League parks.

Basically, we have to accept that it's here to stay with issues. But that doesn't mean it can't be improved. Some of the thoughts below are things that I've come up with on my own. Others are based on observations I've made in other sports (specifically the NFL and NBA). A few points are suggestions I've read over the years. I can't claim credit for these and wish I could cite the source if I could recall where and when I actually read the suggestion. So here are the things Major League Baseball needs to change in order to improve Interleague play:

Balance the schedule. Right now, the scheduling is ludicrous, with one NL series taking place during Interleague play since there are two more NL teams than AL teams. Monday through Thursday of this week the St. Louis Cardinals will play the New York Mets at CitiField, giving them an extra series against each other than either of them will play against their other non-division opponents. Frankly, there's no clear understanding as to why the Cardinals and Mets drew each other. Of course, you can't balance the schedule until you balance the leagues, so...

Balance the leagues. Right now, there are 16 NL teams and 14 AL teams. The best way to balance it would be to balance them at 15 teams per league, similar to the NBA. For purposes of illustration, I will suggest moving Milwaukee back to the AL Central and moving Kansas City to the AL West. The leagues would look like this (team order is based on hypothetical 2008 final standings):

NL East
Philadelphia Phillies
New York Mets
Florida Marlins
Atlanta Braves
Washington Nationals

NL Central
Chicago Cubs
Houston Astros
St. Louis Cardinals
Cincinnati Reds
Pittsburgh Pirates

NL West
Los Angeles Dodgers
Arizona Diamondbacks
Colorado Rockies
San Francisco Giants
San Diego Padres

AL East
Tampa Bay Rays
Boston Red Sox
New York Yankees
Toronto Blue Jays
Baltimore Orioles

AL Central
Milwaukee Brewers
Chicago White Sox
Minnesota Twins
Cleveland Indians
Detroit Tigers

AL West
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
Texas Rangers
Oakland Athletics
Kansas City Royals
Seattle Mariners

Of course, by balancing the leagues, this would mean...

There would be an Interleague series taking place every day, which isn't a bad thing. Right now, Interleague play gets a lot of flack when teams like Pittsburgh and Kansas City play each other. This is akin to two non-Conference last place teams in the NBA playing each other in meaningless games at the end of the season. What Interleague games played at a specific time does is point unnecessary spotlight on these games when they really should blend into the background. Also, scheduling Interleague games over the entire season rather than at a specific time helps teams and the schedule makers by...

Making it easier to schedule road trips. If games were scheduled across the season, an Interleague series could be scheduled at any time. For example, if the Angels were to play the Phillies in Philadelphia, the Phillies-Angels series could be scheduled during the Angels' East Coast road trip where they are also playing Boston, New York, and Baltimore. Same can be done for all of the other teams. Also, Joe Girardi of the Yankees complained about how Interleague play prevents him from using a DH for a stretch of games and even suggested last year that games should be broken up throughout the season. The question is, who plays whom and how often? The answers are...

Play 18 interleague games per team, 9 at home and 9 on the road. Then teams can play 16 games against teams in their own division and 8 games against non-division teams, giving everyone 162 games per season as it is now. Since a major complaint is there aren't enough games within the leagues, this ensures that all league opponents are played more than any Interleague opponent and everyone plays the same number of games against everyone else.

Maintain only true "natural"/regional rivalries. As much as Major League Baseball tries to convince us, San Diego and Seattle are not natural rivals unless you consider it natural that they're the only two West Coast teams that don't share their market with another team. Basically, the true natural rivalries are:

Mets-Yankess
Nationals-Orioles
Marlins-Rays
Cubs-White Sox
Astros-Rangers
Cardinals-Royals
Reds-Indians
Dodgers-Angels
Giants-Athletics
(If Pittsburgh is moved to the AL Central instead of Milwaukee, you can add Phillies-Pirates and Brewers-Twins as two more natural rivals.)

These teams listed above would play two home-at-home 3-game series' against each other. The other 12 remaining teams would play one home series against one team and one road series against a different team, randomly selected among the 12. (More on randomly selected opponents below.) Then, MLB should...

Take a play out of the NFL's playbook and determine opponents by strength of schedule. The reason I use the 2008 final standings above is to show, by example. The New York Mets finished in 2nd place last year. In addition to their six Interleague games against the Yankees, the Mets would play three games each against the other 2nd place teams from 2008: Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox (based on the standings above), and Texas Rangers. This leaves three more games to be determined by...

Each team draws a randomly selected opponent (or opponent by process TBD by someone that can think one up.) So the Mets in my previous example would play the Yankees, Yankees, Red Sox, White Sox, Rangers, and team TBD. Should the Mets and Yankees both finish in 2nd place (as they did in 2007), they would not play each other 9 times. Rather, they would still play the 6 games scheduled as natural rivals and each team would draw another random opponent (or opponent by process TBD.) So this would address scheduling and parity of scheduling. One more thing to make Interleague play more interesting and fair would be to...

Switch the DH/pitcher rules for Interleague play. Right now, NL teams gain an advantage by not having the AL team's DH bat in their home parks. This is grossly imbalanced in favor of the NL. Unless MLB can agree with the player's union to keep/dump the DH across the league, a twist to make Interleague play more interesting for the fans that don't get to see the "other" brand of baseball would be to have the DH for Interleague games in NL parks and have pitchers hit in Interleague games in AL parks.


Well, that's all I came up with. I welcome any comments, criticisms, and any thoughts on what I may have missed. Thanks for reading!!

Colbert's Final Signoff from Iraq

Just a quick blurb to follow up my recent blog post about Stephen Colbert in Iraq. He had a great signoff at the end of his last show from Iraq that's worth seeing if you didn't catch it then:

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Operation Iraqi Stephen - Sign Off - Honey, I'm Coming Home
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Stephen Colbert in Iraq

Bryce Harper: Baseball's LeBron?

Okay, this is a bit wonky but enjoy...

Sports Illustrated's Tom Verducci recently wrote an article about Bryce Harper, a baseball phenom from Las Vegas, who reportedly hit a 517-foot home run as a high school freshman last year. Verducci's article likens Harper not just to LeBron James but also to Tiger Woods and Wayne Gretzky. Harper's family also announced that he will be dropping out of high school and getting his GED so he can enroll in junior college and become eligible for the MLB draft a year earlier than he would have if he had stayed in high school. I tend to agree with this blogger on the reasons why it's not such a bad idea. Frankly, I don't understand why more kids that are just bored with high school but smart enough to get a GED don't bother to do this since it's considered the equivalent of a high school diploma and still allows you to enroll in community college.

I perused the article and saw this YouTube video about Harper:



He certainly has a fluid swing. It's a level swing, so he should be able to stay on top of a high pitch, which is typically not true with left-handed hitters. He even showed some power hitting the only opposite field HR in the event. I don't see him as a pitcher at all just because of his hitting prowess. It says he's a catcher but he has great speed and even scored from second base on a wild pitch six times this season. (That claim sounds similar to Kim Jong Il's claim that he shot 11 holes-in-one the first time he played golf or the scene in "The Babe" where Babe Ruth hits an inside-the-park home run on an infield popup.) Either way, I see him as a 1B or 3B unless he's defensively challenged fielding grounders, in which case that throwing arm and speed would make him a solid CF or RF.

Now to the downside, he's hitting 500-foot bombs in the video with an aluminum bad. I'd like to see how he does with a wooden bat. Also, at 7:02 in the YouTube clip is a slow motion side shot of his swing. There is a slight hitch in his swing that could make him susceptible to pitches low-and-away. If he starts to compensate by dipping that back shoulder, as many major leaguers tend to do in a slump, it could impact him psychologically since he's never failed at any level in baseball and further a downward spiral. In other words, his mental makeup and response to coaching are going to be key factors in his success.

That's my take. Read the article, watch the video, and judge for yourself. Thanks for reading my blog!!

The Stephen Colbert Blog Post

Looks like this week is Stephen Colbert week in politics. He is recording his shows from Baghdad all week and is the guest editor of Newsweek for the week. Here are his "editorial" in this week's Newsweek and a few video posts from Colbertnation.com and Morning Joe.

By the way, I know I haven't blogged in a while about sports (actually, I haven't blogged much, period) but I do have an opinion about interleague play in Major League Baseball that I've been kicking around for some time that I will share when I get a chance.

Enjoy the videos!

Colbert's announcement on the Colbert Nation web site that he's going to Iraq:

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Exclusive - Where and When Is Stephen Going to the Persian Gulf - Iraq Announcement
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Stephen Colbert in Iraq

Jon Meacham of Newsweek discussing on Morning Joe how Stephen Colbert became guest editor of Newsweek for the week:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Stephen Colbert getting his hair shaved off by General Ray Odierno under orders from "a superior":

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Obama Orders Stephen's Haircut - Ray Odierno
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Stephen Colbert in Iraq

The Morning Joe gang (minus Morning Joe himself, Joe Scarborough, who must have been off getting his umpteenth Starbucks before 7:00AM) discussing the head shaving video (shorter version of previous video):

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

President Obama's Cairo Speech

Here is the full video of President Barack Obama's speech in Cairo on June 3rd:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy