So, Ed’s post today made me think about why I actually like interleague play. Sure, it is a gimmick, and when it was devised, the sport was sort of at a nadir, so it was almost certainly introduced for the wrong reasons.

But the two leagues are so separate that without it, it’s almost like they’re two different sports entities who happen to have a game against each other at the end of the year. You don’t get the same thing in football because there are so many fewer games that fans from each league have enough time to pay attention to what’s going on in the other league. Baseball, it’s hard to keep up with a single team let alone what’s going on in the other league.

And, if I may step out on a limb, the other big reason that interleague play is good is that it is existentially unsettling. Because of some small de jure differences, huge de facto differences in the way the game is played have evolved over time. I don’t think that interleague play has changed this or even slowed the trend toward deviation between the two leagues. But it does create this one magical time every year where you are forced to realize that what you thought was fixed, inevitable, essential, is actually radically contingent, and could have easily been otherwise.

Plus, I like to see some National League style play occasionally, it it’s also high-larious to see some of the AL pitchers at bat.

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