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Interleague play losing its luster with players, still a hit with fans

Todd D. Milewski  —  6/18/2008 10:48 am

MILWAUKEE -- Mike Cameron was with the Chicago White Sox when Major League Baseball's innovative interleague play launched in 1997, so he jumped right into the idea of regional rivalries.

One of his first tastes of interleague play came as a pinch runner against the crosstown Cubs in the first series between the teams outside of exhibitions since the 1906 World Series.

The freshness of the concept carried an allure with the players, especially from the vantage point of Cameron and his teammates, because the intracity rivalry finally had a chance to play out.

"It was cool because it never happened until you'd play in the World Series," said Cameron, now the Milwaukee Brewers' center fielder.

Groundbreaking then, passe now?

Over the last year, there have been rumblings that interleague play has lost its luster, with local rivalries meaning something but other matchups falling short.

The turnstile counts don't seem to help that argument -- MLB often touts growing attendance figures as evidence that AL-NL games continue to be significant. Time, however, does have a way of dulling the shine.

"Any time you bring change to a game like this, it brings excitement. It always raises a lot of questions," Brewers third baseman Russell Branyan said. "But now it's been going on for a couple of years. It's just another game."

Cameron, who also played in the New York-New York series with the Mets in 2004 and 2005, talked about going to different cities as part of the enjoyment players get from interleague series. Almost secondary in that discussion were the games and different opponents.

"At the same time," he said, "it's kind of like spring training, almost."

That's not the highest compliment from a baseball player, but a little bit of a view on how they perceive the 15 games each season against the other league.

Not that all the Brewers are jaded on the concept, mind you.

"I think it still has that persona a little bit that it's exciting to see different teams," said reliever Brian Shouse, one of seven players on the Brewers' 40-man roster who were in the majors before interleague play arrived. "Some people have never experienced the American League or the National League. It's something to look forward to and see how the leagues compare or differ.

"I think it's great for the fans. Each year you get new teams coming in, and so it's kind of cool to see that and be a part of that."

Fans still love it

That's where seemingly everyone in the Brewers clubhouse agreed -- interleague play is a boon for fans. And they continue to prove it at the gates.

The average attendance for the first weekend of interleague games this season, May 18-20, was 36,881, slightly higher than the first weekend last season.

Last weekend's average attendance for interleague games was 38,425, almost 1,700 more per game than on the second weekend of the schedule last season.

At Miller Park, the Brewers and the Minnesota Twins drew better than the national average for three games last weekend, including sellouts of more than 41,000 on Saturday and Sunday.

Bridget Gibson of Golden Valley, Minn., a Twins fan who was part of a group of 35 people from the Twin Cities area that took a bus to Milwaukee for last weekend's series, said she still finds interleague play interesting because it provides a different look.

With a bit of a sour face, she referenced the 18 games against the Cleveland Indians that are on the Twins' schedule as an explanation for why fans need a change of scenery.

She has baseball purist reasons, too.

"I love that our pitchers have to bat because I don't like the DH anyway, but I live with it," Gibson said. "I like this."

Some Brewers fans enjoy seeing formerly familiar uniforms.

From 1970, when they arrived in Milwaukee, until 1997, the Brewers were part of the American League, so the Twins were regular guests. As were the Toronto Blue Jays and the Baltimore Orioles, the other opponents on a nine-game homestand that is in progress.

The Brewers moved to the National League in 1998, and the Blue Jays and Orioles haven't been to Milwaukee since.

"We're back playing some of the teams that we used to be playing against," said Brewers fan John Herber of Green Bay. "I think it's exciting."

Adam Rabbe of Milwaukee saw the Brewers play the Twins at the Metrodome last season, but only because he was already in the Twin Cities. Interleague play didn't seem to resonate with him as a reason to make a road trip.

"It's just another game," he said.

A budding rivalry

The rivalry aspect of the format is one of the highly marketable aspects, especially where there are two teams in one metro area like Los Angeles, Chicago and New York.

Since 2002, the Brewers and the Twins have played six games against each other in a season, three in each team's park. (This year's series at Minnesota is June 27-29.)

"It's supposed to be a rivalry," Cameron said. "But there's only, like, three of those. I think I played in two of them. I played in the New York-New York, Chicago-Chicago. And then you've got the L.A. thing."

Don't tell those who wore their Brewers or Twins apparel to Miller Park last weekend that it isn't a natural rivalry. Brewers starting pitcher Manny Parra said it took him only the first two days of the Brewers-Twins series to realize that it's good for baseball.

He was in the tunnel connecting the dugout and the clubhouse during Saturday night's game when he heard a loud cheer from the crowd. He emerged to see what happened, and it turned out to be a big play for the Twins.

"That doesn't seem right," Parra said, "but whatever."

'Just a blip on radar'

Interleague play has ancillary benefits, Brewers manager Ned Yost said, even if it's only in the realm of seeing something different over a long season.

"There is a bit of mystery to it, a little bit of excitement in the sense of playing new teams and seeing new players and seeing different players," he said. "And it's kind of cool, too, because I think it's neat that Toronto and Baltimore, they get to see Ryan Braun and they get to see Prince Fielder and they get to see our players -- Corey Hart, Ben Sheets. I think that's kind of neat for them."

In terms of the whole schedule, however, Branyan summed up interleague play succinctly:

"It's really just a blip on the radar," he said.

Todd D. Milewski  —  6/18/2008 10:48 am