Volume 7, Number 6: A Quick Take on Interleague Play in Baseball

I liked interleague play better when it wasn't always NL East vs. AL East, NL West vs. AL West and NL Central vs. AL Central. When Major League Baseball introduced it in '97, I thought there would be a rotation where, for example, the AL Central would play NL Central teams one year, NL East teams the next, and NL West teams the year after that. The lack of such a rotation is why the "novelty" of interleague play has been wearing off. Did you know...

• that Johan Santana has not pitched in Minnesota since the Twins traded him to the Mets?
• Or that Cole Hamels has NEVER pitched at Comerica Park?

The aforementioned divisional rotation would have kept the novelty element alive.

Take my Detroit Tigers, for example. They get to take on the Reds, Pirates, Brewers, Astros, Cardinals and Cubs. And this ho-hum arrangement goes on year... after year... after year. (Occasionally the Tigers will swap a series against the Astros with the Texas Rangers, so that the Astros and Rangers could meet each other in an all-Texas interleague series while the Tigers face some NL West club that otherwise would have faced the Rangers, but that's about it.  And even the prospect of the Tigers facing that one NL West club will die away when the Astros move to the American League next year.)

So, Bud Selig, could you please bring that divisional rotation back to interleague play?  Thanks.