A Positive Heresy

Major League Baseball, as it likes to call itself, with capital letters, took a radical step in recent days. Teams from the National League played American League teams, with the games counting in the regular-season standings. Heresy, harrumphed the purists--it wouldn’t have happened in Babe Ruth’s day.

Well, let’s remember that the game depends on the fans. The owners knew that in Ruth’s day too. They introduced numbers on the uniforms so fans could tell who was batting. Later uniforms sprouted names, for still easier identification. Years later came the designated hitter, though only in the American League.

Now baseball has given fans interleague play, a chance to see the game’s greatest stars and teams on a wider basis. A Seattle fan did not have to travel to San Francisco or Denver, the nearest cities with National League teams, to see Dodger stars Mike Piazza and Eric Karros. The National League Dodgers went straight to American League Seattle last weekend to strut their stuff against the Mariners and Ken Griffey Jr.--not, alas, successfully.

Prior to this experiment, National and American League players met only in the World Series and the annual All-Star Game. So will interleague play ruin the purity of the game, as some fear? Nah. What purity there was went out the window long ago, with teams shifting cities and the old structure of two leagues of eight teams each giving way to three divisions in each league.

There are problems to be worked out in scheduling if interleague play continues. But it’s good to see a sport plagued in recent years by strikes and a loss of young fans reach out to spur interest. Innovation won’t kill baseball.