Interleague Play

Ok so when this blog first started I think both the editors must admit that we didn’t know how long it would all last. We liked the idea but to be frank, to say it was going to be a hit until the beginning of summer was a stretch. We were simply just trying to end up not falling flat on our face while trying to provide some baseball insight and some humor.

We’re proud to say we’ve at least made it to our first stretch of interleague play. In high school, I always remember interleague play starting around a very happy time of year. I remember when the Braves started to play the Red Sox or Orioles, and the Tribe played the Reds, and the Yankees played the Mets, and the Phillies played the Red Sox, it was time to start goofing off at school and stop doing any semblance of work at night. It was time for summer league to start and the weeks were waning down to the long and grueling school year.

I’ve got so many memories dating back to the first interleague game. I remember watching Darryl Hamilton and the San Francisco Giants beat the Texas Rangers in the first interleague game ever back in 1997. The Giants won on a hit by “Ham-Bone“.

I remember the Indians beating the Reds back when they were both decent teams, on an Omar Vizquel homerun at the Jake when Micheal Tucker jumped at the wall in right field and looked like he had saved the game with a homerun robbing catch. Tucker layed on the ground on the warning track unconscious basically and no one in the stadium knew if he had the ball. He did not and the hit went as a walk off homerun.

I remember Adam Dunn’s walk off grand slam off Bobby Wickman last season in Cincinnati against the Tribe, and being there to see it. I also remember Juan Castro getting a game winning single allowing the Reds to beat the Yankees in Cincinnati back in 2003 (they took 2 of 3 against them).

I am a large supporter of interleague play. I think it’s a great thing for the sport of baseball and it allows for match-ups that traditionally would only be able to be dreamt of occuring in the World Series or in the All-Star game. Interleague play occurs at a nice point during the season, basically unofficially signaling that ‘the baseball season is in full throw’.