Interleague Competition A Hit With Team Owners
Ripken vs. Maddux. Griffey vs. Nomo. Bonds vs. Johnson.
Coming in 1997 to a ballpark near you.
Baseball owners broke with more than a century of tradition on Thursday, unanimously approving the start of interleague play.
Each team will play 15 or 16 interleague games in 1997, the first that count in the records other than the All-Star game and World Series.
“We have the greatest tradition in the world, but tradition shouldn’t be an albatross,” acting commissioner Bud Selig said. “This will be a tremendous success. There isn’t a doubt in my mind.”
Owners aren’t worried the two eventual World Series teams may play each other during the regular season.
“There’s nothing in the Constitution of the United States that forbids that,” Selig said. “I remember sitting at the Super Bowl last year and watching San Francisco play San Diego, and somebody said they played last November. There was no less interest.”
In 1997, each team in the A.L. East will play a three-game series against each team in the N.L. East and every A.L. Central team will play a three-game series against every N.L. Central team. A.L. West teams will play four games against N.L. West teams, but they might be split into a two-game series in each city.
The Major League Baseball Players Association must approve the idea, and owners said they weren’t worried about union rejection.
“The concept of interleague play in major league baseball is certainly intriguing, worthy of serious consideration,” union head Donald Fehr said. “As we look for new ways to grow the game and make it better for our fans, interleague games deserve a hard look.”
Selig predicted the designated hitter, used by the A.L. since 1973, wouldn’t become a sticking point. N.L. president Len Coleman and A.L. president Gene Budig said that in 1997, the DH probably will be used in A.L. ballparks only.
The union wants the DH expanded to both leagues because it creates high-salaried jobs. But owners have proposed elimination of it in the A.L.
Selig called the DH a “non-issue.”
“It (the DH) might kill interleague play, but I don’t expect the union to do that,” said Boston Red Sox chief executive officer John Harrington, chairman of the owners’ schedule-format committee.
Owners said they anticipated interleague games will rotate by division, meaning that every team will meet at least once every three seasons, but they didn’t formulate specific plans beyond 1997.
On the final day of their winter meetings, owners also approved the proposed purchase of 25 percent of the California Angels by the Walt Disney Co., which will take over operation of the team from Gene Autry, its founding owner in 1961.
The deal is contingent on the Anaheim City Council approving within 60 days the reconstruction of Anaheim Stadium.
Owners also approved their $1.7 billion, five-year television contracts with Fox, NBC, ESPN and Liberty and their licensing agreement with Major League Baseball Properties.