Top Five Reasons Why I Hate Interleague Play

Major League Baseball established interleague play in 1997, allowing American League teams to face National League teams in the regular season for the first time ever. Originally, teams only faced off against opponents in their respective division in the opposite league, (i.e. AL East teams played NL East teams). Eventually, the system was changed to allow rotating opponents, except for those designated rivalry matchups. Here's why I hate it.

1. It cheapens the All-Star Game and the World Series
One unique feature of the Fall Classic is that the two pennant winners have to face off against a team they haven't seen before all season long. You also have the novelty of pitchers having to bat and designated hitters having to field when an AL team plays in an NL park. Further, visiting teams must play in a completely unfamiliar ballpark. With the World Series and All-Star Game no longer being the only opportunities to see interleague play, there's one less reason to watch those major events.

2. It results in uneven scheduling
Since teams only play six interleague series, they don't get to see every other squad in the opposite league. Therefore, you can get some serious strength of schedule imbalances depending on who you draw. If you happen to be assigned the competitive NL West (four of five teams above .500), you're in a lot worse shape than other teams, against whom you might be competing for a playoff spot, who are matched up against the anemic NL Central (five of six teams below .500).

3. Lack of familiarity doesn't breed contempt
One cool thing about the AL/NL format is that you're guaranteed three or four series a year against non-divisional opponents, allowing you to develop a rivarly against anyone in your league, even if . Playing three games against the Phillies, knowing you won't see them again that season, fails to produce that same kind of fire. Furthermore, teams have to prepare an additional five or six scouting dossiers, each one to be used only for a single series.

4. Make-up games are a major headache
The unbalanced schedule makes rescheduling rain-outs difficult enough, since teams may only make one visit to the other's park (see this April's snowed-out Seattle-Cleveland series for more info). But when teams only play three times the entire year, losing one of those games is a major hassle. If it's the last game of a series, there's no possibility for a next-day doubleheader, so teams must either play on a mutual off-day (if logistics allow for it) or wait until the end of the season and play the game only if it will have postseason implications.

5. Many rivalries are contrived or inequitable
The Yankees-Mets, White Sox-Cubs, A's-Giants, and Dodgers-Angels rivalries make perfect sense, since crosstown (or cross-metropolitan area) teams have a natural claim to play each other annually for regional supremacy. Instate rivalries like Cardinals-Royals and Rangers-Astros also make sense (though I doubt many care about Marlins-Devil Rays). But other "rivalries" based either on history (Red Sox-Braves) or the fact that a division had teams left over (Mariners-Padres) are really only rivalries because Major League Baseball said so. Furthermore, a team like the Yankees must play six against the streaking Mets while divisional rival Baltimore gets six against the hapless Nationals.