Intolerable (Interleague) Cruelty

"Please Mr. Selig, don't make me bat anymore."

I love baseball. I love the Red Sox. I love hot dogs at the ballpark. I love almost anything about America's great past-time. But...

I hate interleague play. Oh, let me count the ways...

1. Does ANYONE really want to see these pitchers hit? I mean I know many of them are pretty good athletes, but when you see them up there hacking away or lacksidaisically walking away with the bat on their shoulder you kind of wonder if the men batting were plucked from the fans in the stands. Good hitting pitchers are pretty much history by about Division III level college ball. Whatever ex-pitcher came up with this idea should be drug out in the street and shot.

2. The matchups that MLB comes up with make absolutely NO sense whatsoever - except for the odd Subway Series or Battle of the Bay stuff, these historical or "regional" (aka Minnesota vs. Pittsburg?) games are an absolute joke. Chipper Jones was right.

3. Just because you have to add the term "DH" to the lineup does NOT make the position insignificant regardless of what NL pundits may claim. No one wants to see Jim Thome or David Ortiz play first base any more than anyone wants to see Greg Maddux jiggle while he waves furiously at a blazing 82 mph changeup.

Shall I go on?

I must admit that PART of my disgust arises from the Red Sox' historically poor showing in this phase of the schedule - a trend that has gloriously reversed itself over the past few years. So instead of being about a .400 team versus the NL, Boston now has won something like 26 out of their last 31 interleague games. And I still don't like it. Doesn't that say something?

Even the word "interleague" suggests something almost smacking of political correctness - gee whiz! This is baseball! PLAY BALL! not politics. And for those lifelong NL "purist" fans who still drool over their hometown pitchers blowing away their visiting counterparts to the tune of 6-8% more strikeouts per year, I am guessing that you're mostly all Cubs fans or you still believe the team in D.C. is the Senators.

Rock on you DH-haters... we'll see you in the All-Star game.