Interleague play
Unlike modern interleague play, none of these contests, except for the World Series, counted toward official team or league records.
In 2002, MLB introduced a system of rotating matchups, allowing interleague, cross-country games to occur in the regular season for the first time.
The first National Commission Chairman, Cincinnati Reds president August Herrmann (who had already been a proponent of interleague play), proposed an ambitious scheme in late 1904.
"[1][2] Another interleague play idea was floated around the same time by Boston Americans owner John Taylor, whose plan was for each league to play its full 154-game schedule, to be followed by not just a championship series between the two league winners, but also by series between the two second-place finishers, the two third-place teams, and all other corresponding finishers.
[2] In August 1933, several owners reacted favorably to a proposal by Chicago Cubs president William Veeck to have teams play four interleague games in the middle of the season, beginning in 1934.
[3] In December 1956, Major League owners considered a proposal by Cleveland Indians general manager and minority-owner Hank Greenberg to implement limited interleague play beginning in 1958.
Notably, under Greenberg's proposal, all results would count in regular season game standings and league statistics.
[6] While the concept was again considered in the 1970s,[7] it was not formally approved until 1996, at least in part as an effort to renew the public's interest in MLB following the 1994 players' strike.
[8] MLB's first regular-season interleague game took place on June 12, 1997, as the Texas Rangers hosted the San Francisco Giants at The Ballpark in Arlington.
There were four interleague games on the schedule that night, but the other three were played on the West Coast, so the Giants–Rangers matchup started a few hours earlier than the others.
The designated hitter (DH) rule was originally applied in the same manner as in the World Series (and the All-Star Game prior to the 2010 edition).
In 2007, two teams – the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Baltimore Orioles – played six games with more than one interleague opponent.
The Miami Marlins also did this, playing both the Tampa Bay Rays and Boston Red Sox for six games each.
For the 2020 season, all interleague games featured the DH, as the National League used the rule as an experiment due to health and safety measures related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
With the Pirates beating the Royals on September 19, 2018, the National League guaranteed a season series win for the first time since 2003.
The American League holds the longest streak for finishing with the better record in interleague play, at 14 straight seasons, dating back from 2004 through 2017.
"It is the opinion of Major League Baseball that there is no justification for compiling a new volume of records based on Interleague Play.
Since 1999, certain interleague matchups have been highly anticipated each year, due to the geographic proximity of the teams involved.
[21][22] In 2014, the ten teams that qualified for the postseason were five pairs of geographical rivals: the Angels, Athletics, Orioles, Royals, and Tigers from the AL; and Dodgers, Giants, Nationals, Cardinals, and Pirates from the NL.
Because of the existence of "natural rivals", not every matchup was played within each matched pair of divisions; for instance, the Milwaukee Brewers faced only Baltimore and Boston from the AL East in 2003, then met New York, Tampa Bay, and Toronto in 2005.
The Marlins not only claimed the distinction of winning that game, 1–0, in walk-off fashion, but also saw their pitcher Henderson Álvarez (who was in the on-deck circle when the walk-off happened) pitch a no-hitter, marking just the 7th time a no-hitter was tossed in an interleague contest.
The Kansas City Royals hosted the New York Mets at Kauffman Stadium in a nationally televised game and won, 4–3.
The geographical counterparts were initially skipped in 2004, but returned to the schedule in 2006, creating a three-year rotation that remained in use for over a decade.
The current format has a total of 48 interleague games per season (46 in 2023 and 2024), consisting of a six-game home and home series against the geographic rival (four games in 2023 and 2024) and a single three-game series against the other 14 interleague opponents, with location to alternate every year.
[19][20] Since its introduction, regular-season interleague play has continued to be a source of controversy among baseball fans and others involved with the sport.
