Extreme Baseball: Padres vs. Tigers

Nineteen years ago, the Detroit Tigers and San Diego Padres played in the World Series. But look at them now.

They’re the two worst teams in baseball, and the return of interleague play has served up a battle for the basement: a three-game series between the Tigers and Padres starting tonight at Qualcomm Stadium.

It might not be a pretty sight. The jugger-nots, separated by only two games for the worst record in the majors, are so bad they’ve combined to total only 31 victories. By comparison, Seattle and Atlanta, baseball’s top two teams, have each won 37 games.

Detroit (14-40) became the first team to start 0-9 in consecutive seasons and took nearly three weeks to win two games. The Padres (17-41) made it to .500 twice in April, then began a spectacular free fall, losing 28 of 35, to pull almost neck and neck with the Tigers.

“I know there’ll be some people watching this with interest, just to see who takes over the worst record in baseball,” said Padre Manager Bruce Bochy, whose friend, Alan Trammell, left the Padre coaching staff in the off-season to return to the Tigers as manager. “But that’s not what I’m in this for, or the players.”

Detroit and San Diego could go down to the wire chasing the New York Mets’ modern record of 120 losses in their expansion season of 1962.

Interleague games will be played in three segments, all this month. After six seasons, the NL leads, 726-718. There are some interesting matchups this season, thanks to the rotation of AL East-NL Central, NL East-AL West and AL Central-NL West.

The Yankees will play at Wrigley Field -- where Babe Ruth hit his “called shot” home run in the 1932 World Series -- for the first time since the 1938 World Series. Roger Clemens will try a third time for No. 300 on Saturday against Kerry Wood. Boston will play at Pittsburgh starting today in a rematch of the first World Series 100 years ago.

Still, big leaguers don’t seem too interested.

“Bro, it’s just a baseball game,” Pirate outfielder Kenny Lofton said.

Some other World Series rematches include Cardinals-Red Sox (1946, ‘67) and Yankees-Reds (1975-76).

The Expos are back in San Juan, Puerto Rico, playing host to the Angels, then the Texas Rangers and their local star, Juan Gonzalez.

Cub Manager Dusty Baker doesn’t like that 18 interleague games, or more than one-tenth of Chicago’s schedule, will have an influence on whether the team goes to the playoffs.

“This is when your advance scouts make their money,” he said.

Oriole Manager Mike Hargrove has been making designated hitter David Segui take grounders at first base so he can play against Houston and St. Louis on the road.

“American League teams are built for the DH game,” Hargrove said. “When we go to the National League parks, we play at a disadvantage.”