Interleague Baseball Has A Lot Going For It

Admit it, all you baseball purists. This weekend wasn’t so painful, was it?

That standing ovation for Cal Ripken in Atlanta. Those fans booing Joe Carter in Philadelphia. The scene between Albert Belle, Marge Schott and her dog in Cincinnati.

This interleague stuff is fun. And it hasn’t ruined the game or its century-old tradition a single bit.

Enhanced it, really.

So what if the Orioles swept the Braves? If they see each other in the World Series, it won’t wreck anything - their three-day set in June will merely set up what might happen in October.

Really, were the NBA Finals diminished because the Jazz and Bulls met during the regular season?

We saw matchups we’d only imagined - Mark McGwire vs. Hideo Nomo, for example. And in a sport that prides itself on its past, we talked about memorable moments - seeing Mookie Wilson coaching first base for the Mets against Boston brought back visions of that grounder to Bill Buckner in ‘86.

Most of all, interleague play works because it’s still baseball out there.

Whether it’s Seattle and Colorado going wild in a 12-11 slugfest or Randy Johnson dominating the next night at the Kingdome, it’s the same game. This is not the DH, which changed how the game was played and created a huge split that still exists.

Instead, this is new, different and even more interesting than expected - no matter how much traditionalists insist on turning up their noses and turning off their TV sets.

Fans seemed to like it. Several ballparks had their biggest crowds of the season this weekend, and the big rivalries haven’t even started yet. Just watch the interest level zoom tonight when the Mets visit Yankee Stadium and the Cubs take on the White Sox.

Maybe because it’s so new, but most every meeting seemed to offer something.

Over and over, there was this attraction - the differences between the leagues were highlighted.

In Texas, Darryl Hamilton led off the first game Thursday night with a single and San Francisco’s next batter bluffed a bunt. That’s how they do it in the N.L.

In Seattle, the Dodgers scored on a suicide-squeeze bunt by Brett Butler, not exactly an A.L. play.

“That must be a dinosaur,” Mariners manager Lou Piniella said.

Critics claim interleague play will eventually rob the leagues of their styles. Then again, more than a quarter-century after Joe Namath led the New York Jets over the Baltimore Colts, no one confuses the NFC and AFC teams in the Super Bowl.

Problems, sure there are some that need to be addressed.

Bad weather in Florida and St. Louis made for long days and nights. With teams only meeting in one series a year, there’s no room for rainouts. A couple of days off might need to be built in to allow for postponements.

There’s also no reason to have interleague games in September.

Perhaps the interleague games could bracket the All-Star game, giving baseball a festive week or two in the middle of the summer.

The DH, that’s a perennial debate. Fans in Florida, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh mostly saw big hitters Cecil Fielder, Harold Baines and Chili Davis on the bench.

Most of all, baseball should make sure this neat, new idea does not get out of hand.

No doubt, major league owners are beaming with the early results. But knowing their history, it would not be unlike them to overdo it, trying to increase from 15-16 interleague games per season to 30 or 40 in hopes of making more money.

As it stands, this thing is working just fine. Let’s not kill it before we give it a chance to grow.