MLB Interleague Play 2.0: Regional Tournaments

In the famous words of Chris Farley: I’ve got… a… plan… a plan to save Major League Baseball’s Interleague play. The idea popped into my head after reading an interesting article from Philadelphia Daily News columnist Paul Hagen about how the Phillies almost moved to the American League East 20 years ago:

Why not utilize Interleague play to maximize regional rivalries?

I’m proposing Interleague Play 2.0: Regional Tournaments. But before we get into the fine details of Interleague Play 2.0, let’s take a look at how something so cool somehow became so mundane.

Back when the internet was only a figment of Al Gore’s imagination, National League and American League teams only faced off when everything was on the line in the World Series. From 1903, when the AL’s Boston Americans stunningly defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates five games to three — that’s right, five to three — until the 1996 World Series won by the New York Yankees over the Atlanta Braves (four games to two), each league played its own schedule completely independent of the other.

Then it all changed when baseball commissioner Bud Selig announced before the 1997 season that NL and AL teams would meet in the regular season for the first time ever.

As much as I rag on old Bud, I’ve got to give him credit for this one. When the ‘97 schedule came out, I saw that the Phillies were hosting the Yankees on my birthday. My mom bought my friends and I tickets to the game, and we watched as Curt Schilling struck out 16 batters in a Phillies win. It was easily one of the coolest in-person sports fan experiences of my life. Without Interleague play, this wonderful birthday gift would’ve never happened.

So, um, thanks Bud! (We’ll just brush this little sports column under the rug for now.)

Anyways, I think I can pinpoint the exact moment Interleague play began to peter out. From 1997 until 2002, AL East teams played NL East teams, AL Central teams played NL Central, and — wait for it — the AL West played the NL West. Genuine geographical rivalries with several teams. I was able to go to another Phillies-Yankees game in 1999 and 2001, while my friends were able to make the short trip down I-95 to Camden Yards for road games against the Orioles.

Throughout the rest of the country, the story was the same. Geographical rivals in New York, Chicago, the Bay Area, Los Angeles and elsewhere finally played series against each other, turning garden variety regular season games into must-see TV.

But once Major League Baseball decided to have Interleague matchups with different divisions, it gradually lost its luster. I’m sorry, but a series between the Phillies and Twins really isn’t going to bring home the bacon for the ratings-starved advertisers right? Fans aren’t turning out in droves for that once-in-a-lifetime visit from Kansas City.

So where does that leave us now? I don’t think we can ever go back from Interleague play. Not after igniting these intense regional rivalries. Instead, we need to improve upon it.

That gets me back to my original point: Interleague 2.0 with regional tournaments. We scrap Interleague play, as we know it now, and in its place we have midsummer tournaments based on regions of the country. Not following? Listen to this example:

In Philadelphia, a group of city colleges called the Big 5 — LaSalle, Penn, St. Joe’s, Temple, and Villanova — play a round-robin tournament in basketball every year, despite being in different conferences. (LaSalle, St. Joe’s, and Temple are in the Atlantic 10 Conference, while ‘Nova plays in the Big East and Penn plays in the Ivy League.) Each team takes several games out of its non-conference schedule to wage war on the court with its main rivals. In fact, the annual St. Joe’s-’Nova matchup is actually called The Holy War. You can’t make this stuff up.

If you’re not from the Delaware Valley, believe me when I tell you that the Big 5 is a big deal to any Philly college hoops fan.

Let’s apply this to MLB. Instead of having teams play a random series with their Interleague counterparts, we organize the teams into regions and have them face-off in tournaments each year for a few weeks.

Granted there is some red tape to cover — flexible scheduling, over 100 years of backwards thoughts from the Commissioner’s office, etc. — but nothing outweighs the benefits of a midseason playoff. In the spirit of fair play, let’s talk about some obstacles between us and Interleague Play 2.0:

What’s the format for Interleague Play Tournaments?

Each region has a different setup, so we’re going to need to be a little bit creative.

Northeast Region

• Baltimore Orioles
• Boston Red Sox
• New York Mets
• New York Yankees
• Philadelphia Phillies
• Washington Nationals

*Subway series, Beltway Series & Phillies-Sox each get rotating byes in the first round. While they play each other, the other four teams play the first round series. Then those teams w/ byes play the winners in the next round. Losing teams play each other in the next rounds.

Great Lake Region

• Chicago Cubs
• Chicago White Sox
• Cincinnati Reds
• Cleveland Indians
• Detroit Tigers
• Milwaukee Brewers
• Pittsburgh Pirates
• Toronto Blue Jays

*Three round, single-elimination format. Losing teams play other losing teams that were their would-be opponents in the next round.

South Region

• Atlanta Braves
• Florida Marlins
• Houston Astros
• Tampa Bay Rays
• Texas Rangers

*Round-robin format. Teams with the two best records after round-robin series play a championship series. The teams with the next two best records play a series, and the last place team plays the Heartland’s worst as well.

Heartland Region

• Arizona Diamondbacks
• Colorado Rockies
• Kansas City Royals
• Minnesota Twins
• St. Louis Cardinals

*(Same format as the South Region.) Round-robin format, and the two teams with the two best records play a championship series.

Pacific Coast Region

• Anaheim Angels
• Los Angeles Dodgers
• Oakland Athletics
• San Diego Padres
• San Francisco Giants
• Seattle Mariners

*Same format as Northeast. Bay series, “The 5″ series (Dodgers-Angels), and Padres-Mariners rotate each year for the first-round bye match-ups. (BTW: “The 5″ is Californian for Interstate 5.)

So how do we go about making flexible schedules in the middle of the regular season?

Baseball designates, in advance, which teams get to host games for a particular round. For instance, the Red Sox, Yankees, and Orioles all host round one games. The Mets, Phillies, and Nationals host second round games. Third round (or final round) is hosted by, say, the Red Sox, Phillies, and Nats. It’s a bit subjective, but so is having home field in the World Series decided by the All-Star Game. (Justifying something while referencing one of the strangest decisions in sports history — moving on…)

What do we do about the designated hitter?

Simple, when AL teams are home, the DH rule is in effect. And in case you’re wondering, pitchers must bat in NL parks. (I like how I answered this question better.)

What are these teams playing for?

What’s the matter, pride and bragging rights not good enough for you? Geographic rivalries are the bee’s knees! As a Phillies fan, I would be absolutely stoked for a Phillies-Yankees Interleague series with the Northeastern Cup on the line. Imagine the excitement for a Mets-Yankees Cup Final or, even better, a Yankees-Red Sox final? And I’m just talking about one region. Imagine the excitement for a Northside-Southside throwdown in Chicago. Or Los Angeles. Or the Bay Area.

(If that’s not enough for you, we can throw in a Regional Championship flag to hang somewhere near the Division Championship flags.)

At the end of the day, it’s an opportunity for Major League Baseball to turn some of the dog days of summer into a true midsummer classic (and not like that other Midsummer Classic). We can only hope that baseball is listening to a small sports website that gets about 40 hits a day.

Good think I’m back on good terms with Bud Selig…

Tags: Big 5, Bud Selig, interleague play, MLB, Regional Tournaments