Baseball-Link

  When it first began, Interleague play was a great idea. It would allow fans to see matchups they could never see off the screens of Playstation 2. It seems now, however, that fans are getting tired of seeing the same �rivalries� every year.

  As the cross-league play got boring, the league decided to rotate, allowing the AL East to play the NL West last year. This year, it was rotated again, pitting the AL East against the AL Central. One thing that remained in tact, though, was the �Rivalry Series.�

  There are two problems with these rivalries. First, watching the Yankees play the Mets six times every year gets a little redundant. The idea is to create extra revenue for these cross-town opponents. But when the teams play so many times, each game doesn�t mean as much as it had previously.

  Playing too many times in one year can also take a bit of the luster off of the World Series, as it did in 2000. The Mets and Yankees played each other six times during the season. By the time the World Series rolled around, the games, although they still determined the champion, didn�t mean as much to most hardcore Yankees or Mets fans, because they had already seen it so much.

  The idea of the World Series is to pit teams against each other that haven�t played, creating exciting outcomes. Teams then have to approach the games differently, not knowing how the other team will play, what their pitchers are made of, and how their batters hit. By having so many interleague games, it takes away from this.

  A second problem with the rivalry series� is that not all teams have true cross-town rivals. For instance, the Cubs v. the White Sox is a match-up that fans desire. The Twins v. the Brewers, however, isn�t as appealing. Several other series� are also confusing. Baltimore/Atlanta, Cleveland/Pittsburgh, and Detroit/Colorado don�t seem to make much sense as rivals, and lack the cross-town logic as well.

  A solution? Cut the rivalry games down to four per year. Each team would then get two home games and share equal revenue off of the series. Also, get rid of those Tigers v. Rockies meaningless series� and stick to Yankees/Mets, Angels/Dodgers, Astros/Rangers, Cubs/Sox, and Blue Jays/Expos.

  As for the rest of the interleague series�, get rid of them as well. Who needs to see Milwaukee vs. Boston? No one. Aside from that, do the games in Fenway sell out when the Brewers come to town? NO.