That’s Intertainment: Play Between Leagues a Big Hit

Thwarted in their effort to obtain Randy Johnson, the Dodgers will at least be in the same ballpark (such as it is) with the Big Unit this weekend.

They open a three-game series against the American League’s Seattle Mariners in the Kingdome on Friday night--even though they have yet to play the San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants, the leaders in their own National League West.

Similarly, the Angels open a three-game series against the National League’s Colorado Rockies on Friday night at Edison Field--even though they have yet to play the Texas Rangers, who lead their own American League West.

If you can’t tell the teams without a schedule, the conclusion is obvious:

Baseball is about to embark on a second season of interleague play--the second of a two-year experiment destined to become part of the annual agenda.

On that, management and the players’ union (with some reservations and some opposition among its members) basically agree.

“I think it will be a permanent part of the landscape, no question about it,” acting Commissioner Bud Selig said. “Like three divisions and the wild card, it’s just too good.”

Said Don Fehr, the union’s executive director: “Everyone concedes that interleague play was a real bright spot [last year] and that it sparked a lot of interest. Our only real issue pertains to the nature of the interleague schedule.”

Fehr referred to the proliferation of the dreaded two-game series, challenging the improvisational skills of traveling secretaries by keeping teams on the move at all hours while testing the limits of muscles, nerves and overall packing ability.

“No one likes the two-game series, including the owners,” Fehr said. “The teams become fatigued, and the increased number of flights raise costs. There is mutual interest in reaching an accord.”

Management and the union have been negotiating an extension of the interleague agreement, and Fehr said he was hopeful it can be resolved by mid-July. “Basically,” he said, “most of our players found interleague play to be exciting.”

Perhaps, but there are traditionalists among the players--as well as among fans and management.

The argument being that interleague detracts from the World Series and the impact of the league races.

“It’s ridiculous,” St. Louis Cardinal first baseman Mark McGwire said in Los Angeles while sidelined by a back strain. “No one thought it out, and I hope it doesn’t continue.

“Races should be won within the divisions and the leagues.

“But to accommodate [interleague play] we’re already finished playing the Phillies, for example, but we have yet to play the [division rival Houston] Astros and we make only this one trip to Los Angeles.”

In the context of a 162-game schedule, interleague play provides a daunting challenge for the architects.

The 14-team American League requires that each team play 58 series over the course of a 25 1/2-week schedule. The Angels play 17 two-game series.

The 16-team National League requires 52 series. The realignment to 16 reduced the number of two-game series--the Dodgers play 12--but also meant that instead of playing two home and two road series with each team in the other two divisions, each team now plays three--two home and one away or two away and one home.

In addition to the Cardinals, for example, the popular Chicago Cubs play only one series in Los Angeles this year.

At times, a convoluted schedule seems to have only one reward: all that frequent-flier mileage.

The Cincinnati Reds, for instance, played in Los Angeles last weekend, then moved to San Francisco for three games that started Monday. They returned to Cincinnati on Wednesday night to begin a three-game interleague series with the Cleveland Indians on Friday, but are scheduled to return to the West Coast on Sunday night to begin a three-game series in San Diego on Monday.

Despite the problems and adversities, however, it is difficult to dispute interleague popularity.

Is a players’ union widely perceived as catering to the greedy whims of its millionaire members going to risk further alienating fans by firmly opposing a concept the fans have enthusiastically embraced?

Is management, at a time when baseball’s recovery can be measured against a record attendance pace, going to insist on the phasing out of the designated hitter as a requisite to continuation of interleague play?

Bet this: Owners are too busy counting interleague revenue to worry about the designated hitter.

“The DH isn’t a factor,” Selig said. “Until there’s a catalytic issue like major realignment, there’s no reason to get excited about the DH.”

The excitement is at the box office.

The average attendance for 214 interleague games last year was 33,407, up 20.2% over the intraleague average of 27,800.

There will be 216 interleague games this year--again emphasizing geographic rivalries with West playing West, Central playing Central and East playing East.

The average attendance through Tuesday, with schools letting out now and the summer boom just beginning, was 26,569, up slightly from 25,903 through a comparable number of dates last year and about the same as last year if the Arizona and Tampa Bay expansion totals are subtracted.

“We have a great shot at our all-time record, even without Arizona and Tampa Bay,” Selig said.

“We’re doing well, and interleague adds to it, although the interleague average may not be up quite as much as last year because the overall average is going to be up. Some years may be better than others, but we don’t regard [interleague play] as a fad. We feel very good about it. [Bill] Veeck and [Hank] Greenberg were right when they argued for it in the ‘40s. The only question I hear is, what took you so long?”

The interleague schedule was played in three phases last year. This year, it will be compressed between June 5-July 2.

The highlight for Southern California fans will be the four games between the Angels and Dodgers--two in Anaheim and two in Los Angeles--beginning June 22. AL teams went 97-117 last year, and Manager Terry Collins, whose Angels were 4-12, said, “I liked it, but I still think American League teams are at a disadvantage because our pitchers aren’t used to hitting and we lose [the DH] when we play in National League parks.”

It can be said that the Angels lost their division race--they finished six games behind Seattle--because of their ineffectiveness against the NL, particularly the Dodgers, who went 9-7 overall in interleague and 4-0 against their Anaheim neighbors.

It was a tense and volatile series in which the teams brawled when Tony Phillips took exception to inside pitches from Chan Ho Park, and the Dodgers won three games in their last at-bat.

“Obviously, you’d have to say, yeah, the way it turned out,” Collins said when asked if their AL division may have been lost playing the NL. “We played good enough, but we just didn’t win. The Dodger games killed us, losing three of four in the last inning. It was a tough road.”

Does he plan to have the Angels approach it differently this year?

“Yes,” Collins said. “We’re going to try to keep them from scoring in the ninth inning.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Interleague Play: The Second Season

When: Beginning Friday, 216 interleague games are scheduled this season.

Last season: 214 games.

Last season’s record: The National League won the battle of head-to-head meetings, 117-97.

Dodgers vs. American League: 9-7

Angels vs. National League: 4-12

Dodgers vs. Angels: Dodgers won series, 4-0. The teams again will play four games--two in Anaheim and two in Los Angeles--beginning June 22.

Average attendance for interleague play: 33,407, up 20% over intraleague average of 27,800.