Many people have been complaining,

about interleague play.

But the fact is that this

“experiment”by Major League

Baseball has been good for

the increase in attendance.

What other team besides the

Yankees can fill out the Network

Associates Coliseum? Yes, the Giants!

And for those Athletics fans that

complained that the Mariners

are playing the Padres while

the A’S are not…Padres took

2 out of 3 from Mariners this

weekend. So, case closed.

A few years from now, when

the Padres have a very good

team and are in their second or

third year in their beautiful new

ballpark in downtown San Diego

noboby will want to play the

Padres then.

By Amaury Pi-González

Many fans

were complaining that the

A’S do not get to play the

Mariners and the Mariners

get to play the Padres for

6 games this month, this

weekend the San Diego

Padres took 2 of 3 from the

Mariners. That should show

you of the integrity and the

greatness of this game.

Look folks, it is a 162 game

season, I do not care who

you play, you still have to

win. The Detroit Tigers beat

the A’S in Oakland, remember?

That is the same Tiger team

that is on a pace to win

36 and loose 126 games.

Tampa Bay recently scored

5 runs in the bottom of the

ninth to win a game. Milwaukee

did very well this weekend

against Minnesota.

Feel sorry for the cellar

teams ?

This weekend in Oakland

was one of the most successful

weekends in A’S attendance

history. Did they play the

Yankees, Red Sox, Playoffs,

World Series ?

No, they played the San Francisco

Giants and on Sunday June

22 the A’S attendance

was over 55,000 fans.

I remember in the Charles O

Finley ownership days when

the A’S were winning up to

3 World Series in a row, the

A’S could not sellout Playoff

games !

Does anybody here doubts

how happy the A’S front

office would be if they played

the Giants 12 times per

season instead of 3 times ?

Heck, that could make the

A’S increase their attendance

by 300,000 people… Think of

that A’S fans, when Cleveland

comes in to Oakland for a

middle-of-the-week series.

I do not see much wrong with

interleague play. It was designed

to develop rivalries and increase

attendance and it is just doing

exactly that. Of course there are

teams that cannot develop inter-

league rivalries, maybe the two

best cases are the Mariners, who

are all alone in the Northwest

corner of the country with the

nearest Major League

team about 1,000 miles

South in San Francisco and the

San Diego Padres who only

have one rivalry in their history

and it is ironically with a team

in the same league, the L.A.

Dodgers.

This is a huge country, we cannot

have a rivalry in every corner where

we have Major League Baseball.

But here in the Bay Area, New York,

Chicago and Los Angeles the

interleague games are a complete

success. Even in Florida with two

dying franchises, when the Devil

Rays face the Marlins it becomes

an event. Mind you that those

two teams have two of the most

brilliant rookies in all of baseball,

D.Wills with Marlins and Rocco

Baldeli with Devil Rays, one of

those two will win Rookie of

the Year in the American League.

So how can you develop a rivalry

for the Montreal Expos when they

can even find a permanent home ?

You just can’t. I think the Expos

will be playing in Washington,D.C.

next season and then they might,

develop a real “rivalry”with

their American League proximity

enemies the Baltimore Orioles.

Peter Angelos, the owner of the

Orioles might not like it, but D.C.

might be the most logical place

for the Expos to relocate. I cannot

see Portland, Virginia or New Jersey

with the Expos.

I have no respect for organizations

that complaint that they’re playing

tough teams while other teams

are playing last place teams.

Good organizations believe in

the talent they have and do not

have to complaint because

their team has to play the

tough teams and the competition

gets to play the “softer teams”.

The schedules are done many months

in advance. Kathy Feeney and the

MLB office in New York do ‘as good

a job’ posible considering that

you cannot develop these rivalries

in all locations of the country. It

is a geographical no-no.

It is just a fact that sometimes

you have to schedule Colorado

at Detroit to balance the interleague

schedule. And of course, a lot

of Tiger fans travel to Denver to

see the Tigers…

The truth is that most fans love

interleague, it is evident by the

attendance figures. The players

are the ones that probably

dislike it the most. Players do not

like the “unknown” and lot’s of

times a hitter has no idea what

to expect from a pitcher or viceversa

in a key situation (Keith Foulke might

have to wait another week to see

if he can get Barry Bonds out, since

he was ordered to walk Bonds in

the 9th inning at Oakland with

2 outs with the A’S leading 6 to 5)

Ken Macha’s decision to walk BB

took a little from the confidence of

his #1 reliever in Keith Foulke.

Macha thinks Barry Bonds is going

to hit a Homerun everytime he comes

up to the plate. I didn’t say it, Macha

did say it after the game on television.

Respect, fear, both ? I disagree, granted

Bonds is the most feared hitter today

but he cannot hit a HR each at bat.

Some might say Macha’s strategy

won the game for the A’S, I prefer

to say that Erubiel Durazo’s Homerun

that made the game 6-5 in favor of

the A’S is what won the game.

The drama of interleague play

will continue here in the Bay Area

next weekend when the A’S

travel to Pac Bell Park. These

two teams cannot be more

evently match since interleague

play. A’S have won 18 times

Giants 17. And it will also

continue in Seattle were the

Mariners will host the San

Diego Padres for 3 more

games at Safeco Field.

Interleague play is also good for

baseball because of the “firsts”.

This year the New York

Yankees played

the Cubs at Wrigley for the

first time since the 1938 World

Series. The Oakland Athletics

went back to Philadelphia

for the first time since 1954.

All these “firsts” are good stories

for the Media and for those

fans that follow the game a

real delight.

Keep interleague play, it is

a good show for the fans and

it is a game for the fans not

for the players or the Media.

——————————————————–

Amaury Pi-González is doing Spanish

play by play for San Francisco Giants

and Seattle Mariners this season.

All 81 home games for the Mariners

from Safeco over the new Mariners

Spanish Radio Network out of

KKMO 1360 AM Seattle and on 6

other stations in the States of

Washington and Oregon.

And the Giants all home weekend

games on KZSF 1370 AM out of

San José here in the Bay Area.