They wedged nearly 140,000 people into the seats of The Ballpark at Arlington for the Rangers-Astros series this weekend.
There were 136,864 crammed into Comiskey for three pulsating Cubs-White Sox wars. That was a mere 30,000 more people than the Sox had drawn for an entire homestand the last time they were in town.
|  | | The Cubs and White Sox battled it out in a reminder of the good aspects of interleague play. |
And A's-Giants, out there in the Al Davis Coliseum, outdrew them all, at 140,036 -- nearly 100,000 more customers than had shown up for three games with Tampa Bay a couple of weeks earlier.
So do you think Bud Selig and the folks up in Baseball Central want to kill off interleague play just because the Devil Rays couldn't draw 20,000 for any game against the Mets?
Not one chance, friends. No matter how much complaining you might hear from players, managers and some segments of the ticket-buying public about interleague play, the fact is this:
There's a better chance of Britney Spears becoming the next commissioner than there is of baseball ever pulling the plug on interleague play.
And this is one area where the union is in full agreement.
"It's hard to argue with the numbers," says the union's associate general counsel, Gene Orza, "either the attendance numbers or the ratings numbers."
The numbers always talk. And what these numbers are telling us is that more people like interleague play than dislike it. In fact, many more.
So if anybody out there is longing for the good old days, when men were men and Sundays were for doubleheaders and Old Hoss Radbourne was starting 73 games a year, get over it. This is one clock they're not turning back.
"There are still some players who oppose interleague play," Orza says, "largely on purist grounds. But they still play at night, on AstroTurf."
On the other hand, if you think you're hearing more grumbling from players about these interleague games than ever before, our sense is: You're right.
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Triviality
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In honor of Bret Boone's 66th RBI this weekend -- which tied the full-season career high of his father, Bob -- we ask: Can you name the six active players who have hit at least 20 home runs in a season -- after their fathers have done the same?
(Answer at bottom.)
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We surveyed a group of players about their feelings on interleague play. And here are their main gripes:
They're tired of playing the same teams over and over, for the fifth straight season.
They think it makes the schedule more unbalanced than it already is -- having an unfair impact on some teams' wild-card chances.
They think it messes up the schedule in other ways, creating weird trips and causing some teams to play a club in the other league as many times per year as they plays several teams in their own league.
They think it detracts from the World Series.
Now all of those complaints are valid to varying degrees. We'll concede that.
The Mets are currently in the midst of a bizarre Miami-Philadelphia-Tampa Bay-Baltimore trip. No doubt that one was arranged by Interleague Travel Inc.
And if the Padres get back into the NL West race, how do you think they'll feel about those six games they drew against Seattle -- while Arizona got six against Detroit and Kansas City as a reward for helping baseball schedule the Texas-Houston series?
And it still seems kind of odd that the Braves play the Red Sox as many times (six) as they play the Giants.
But as Orza says, "there's never a perfect answer to this. If the complaint is that you play some teams in your own league as many times as you play a team in the other league, what do you do -- abolish it? Not do it? Is the solution that the Yankees shouldn't play the Mets, just because the Mets play the Yankees as many times as Arizona?"
No way. The solution is: You tweak this interleague system to make it better. And fortunately, that tweakage is on the horizon.
According to several sources, next year's interleague schedule will work like this, if everyone signs off on it:
For the first time, the interleague schedule will finally rotate, NFL-style. So for the most part, very tentatively, the NL East interleague games will be against the AL Central in 2002 and against the AL West in 2003. The NL Central would face the AL West next year, the AL East in 2003. And the NL West would match up against the AL East next year, the AL Central in 2003.
There then would be a six-year rotation, meaning that, with some exceptions, every AL team would visit each NL park once every six years, and vice-versa.
About half of the teams will retain their current "natural" (or at least cross-divisional) rival. That means all of these series will still be played every year: Yankees-Mets, Cubs-White Sox, A's-Giants, Angels-Dodgers, Astros-Rangers, Marlins-Devil Rays, Blue Jays-Expos, Phillies-Orioles, Braves-Red Sox.
The big change in those rivalries is that in the future, in most years, those clubs will play only one three-game series per season, not the current home-and-home. The only exception would be the years those divisions play each other in the regular rotation. In those years only, they would go back to playing home-and-home.
All American League teams would be home at the same time during the interleague games, for the sake of schedule consistency, followed by a period in which all NL teams would be home. Or vice-versa.
And all interleague games would be completed before the All Star Game, meaning you won't see the current 2½-week break between interleague blocs.
These changes, of course, will create a whole new set of wrinkles for players to gripe about: extra coast trips, some extended zig-zaggy trips, a three-week period in which teams will play virtually no one from their own leagues, etc.
But no matter how you work the schedule these days, there is a 100 percent chance that somebody will be grumbling about something. So we'll take those complaints on a case-by-case basis.
In general, though, we like all those changes. The original idea of interleague play was to create a certain mystique by having two teams play each other that had never, or rarely, been on the same field together. But after five years of everybody playing exactly the same teams, there's now no more mystique to Indians-Cardinals than there is to Indians-Royals.
So rotating divisions is a perfect step toward solving that problem. OK, that means that instead of the Mets playing the Red Sox, they'll now get the Tigers. And instead of the Mariners playing the Dodgers, they'll now get the Pirates.
But some teams aren't going to be an attraction, no matter what league they're playing against -- American, National or Japanese Pacific. That's the breaks.
On the other hand, if you're living in an NL city and the Mariners are coming to your town for the first time ever, that creates an in-season buzz that makes the whole concept worthwhile. In our view, anything that creates that buzz is worth trying.
So for every Curt Schilling who says of interleague play, "I hate it, period," there's an Al Leiter who says, "I disagree. I think there is a place for interleague play. What is so wrong with adding more fan interest to the greatest game in the world?"
"Besides," Leiter says, "how else can Schill be overpaid? And no doubt I'm big-time overpaid. A guy who throws cutters all night (making $9.75 million)? C'mon."
This, friends, is one player who gets it. The reason anybody gets overpaid in this game -- or paid at all -- is those 48,000 people ripping through the turnstiles for Astros-Rangers. What they want, they ought to get. And what they want is interleague play.
Miscellaneous rumblings
So how come baseball never rotated divisions in interleague play before this? Because, for the last several years, Selig's grand realignment plans always got in the way.
First, there was "radical" realignment. Then, there was "moderate" realignment which eventually brought us the current six-team NL Central. Then there was the prospective realignment which would have had the Devil Rays and Diamondbacks switching leagues this year.
It wasn't until all that talk died that the schedule-makers were cleared to plan the interleague rotation.
So does the fact that they're planning it now tell you no teams will be moved or contracted by next year? No one will promise that, but that's sure what it suggests to us.
Those David Wells trade rumors keep flying. But of the four teams the White Sox are scouting because they're alleged to be in the bidding -- the Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals and Phillies -- only Boston and St. Louis seem to have significant interest. And neither of those two would be inclined to do anything now at the current asking price (of three young big-league-ready players).
The much hotter Yankees rumor, in fact, involves Ugueth Urbina. But an executive of another club with interest in Urbina says: "I don't see how the Expos and Yankees match up. If the Expos would just take young pitching, the Yankees have a couple of guys who were interesting, in (Randy) Keisler and Alex Graman. But if they ask for what they asked for from us, which was a young lefthanded bopper, I don't see how the Yankees have that guy to give up."
The latest opinion of two club officials who have talked with the Red Sox is that if Jimy Williams does get fired at some point this year, it's far from a lock that Felipe Alou would be the automatic successor.
Great as the Mariners have played, they're not the '39 Yankees (five Hall of Famers), the '53 Yankees (also five Hall of Famers), the '28 Yankees (nine Hall of Famers) or any of these legendary clubs they've been compared with. But one AL GM thinks Seattle does have a shot to pile up one of the great records ever.
"With the unbalanced schedule," the GM said, "they'll play a ton of games the last two months against the rest of their division. And the way it looks now, all three of those teams could be selling instead of buying when we get to the deadline."
In fact, Seattle plays Oakland, Anaheim and Texas only 17 games after the break. But after Aug. 19, 33 of the Mariners' final 36 games are against Tampa Bay, Baltimore, Detroit and their division.
The Phillies made a fascinating roster move before the start of interleague play -- by releasing veteran extra man Rob Ducey and calling up minor-league RBI machine Eric Valent.
"We looked around, and there was no better left-handed hitter available," says assistant GM Ruben Amaro. "So you call him up, play him for a week (in the AL parks) and then decide what to do with him."
The most likely scenario is for Valent to go back to Triple-A, where he was leading the International League in RBIs. The Phillies then would figure to call up Turner Ward to take a more traditional bench job.
But Valent went 3-for-10 in Boston, including a hit off Pedro Martinez. He also plays four positions -- all three outfield spots and first base. So the Phillies haven't completely ruled out keeping him and bouncing him around those positions as a quasi-regular if, in Amaro's words, "he goes lights out."
Probably the most overlooked reason for the Phillies' great start is team speed. They're still leading the NL in stolen bases. And if you can't recall the last time that happened, it's because the last time was in 1886, when they stole 226.
"I don't think we knew we'd lead the league," Amaro says. "But we knew Jimmy Rollins was a better basestealer than he'd shown in the minor leagues, because had the best instincts to steal a base of any player in our organization. And we knew (Doug) Glanville would steal his 30 out of 36. But regardless of whether we lead the league, we know we have to do those little things to get that extra run. It doesn't matter how."
Rollins (19 for 21) and Glanville (13 for 15) are a combined 32 for 36 -- 88 percent.
Twins GM Terry Ryan understands why people constantly expect his team to keep proving it's for real -- even though the Twins have been in first place all but seven days all season (and never have been farther than a game and a half out).
"It will always be like that for clubs like us and the Phillies, because we haven't proved for years that we can win," Ryan says. "A team like Cleveland can lose five in a row and no one will blink an eye, because everyone knows they can reel off eight of nine.
"A team like ours, we can have a skid like two or three in a row and be OK, as long as it doesn't go to five or six or seven. I'm not sure we're capable of overcoming a long losing streak because we scuffle to score runs. But with Radke and Milton and Mays, we have a shot to win every time they pitch. So we should be able to stay out of any long losing streaks."
Finally, Cam Bonifay was fired Monday as GM in Pittsburgh. But he did make one final deal this month. He sent pitcher Jason Ryan to the Dodgers as the player to be named later in the deal that brought catcher Tim Laker to the Pirates.
Huh? What's that? You don't remember that Tim Laker deal? Maybe that's because it happened on March 26, 1999 -- two years and two months ago. Which, as the Beaver County Times' John Perrotto points out, makes Ryan the player to be named really later.
Useless information dept.
We continue to look for ways to quantify the effect of the new strike zone, or whatever it is that's caused offensive numbers to take a mild downturn this year. One scout we talked to suggested: "The biggest change I see is that there are a lot more 1-2 counts this year that used to be 2-and-1 counts. And that has a big effect on that next pitch."
Sounded logical. So we checked. The Elias Sports Bureau's Kevin Hines reports that after approximately the same number of games this year as last year, 2-1 counts were, in fact, down 10 percent. But 1-2 counts were also down, though only slightly.
Here's the complete data (through Sunday):
2-1 counts
2000: 16,725
2001: 15,009
Decline: 10.3 percent
1-2 counts
2000: 17,368
2001: 17,212
Decline: 0.9 percent
We find these results puzzling, mostly. Theoretically, if 2-1 counts were down more than 1,700, you would think 1-2 counts would be up almost that much. So if you see those missing 1,600 pitches, let us know.
Obviously, the new strike zone hasn't stopped Barry Bonds from hitting a home run every day, or Manny Ramirez from hitting .375. So we also had another suggestion from one baseball man who suggested we try to remove, say, the 10 best hitters from each league from the league-wide stats.
That, seemingly, would measure the effect of the new zone on the next tier of hitters -- the guys who have piled up numbers in prior years by murdering mediocre second-line pitching with the help of a miniscule strike zone.
Sounded good. But when Elias ran the numbers, it was clear many of the top hitters have been affected just as much as anyone else. Take a look:
National League
Hitter 2001 2000
Todd Helton .342 .372
Mike Piazza .261 .324
Larry Walker .347 .309
Barry Bonds .310 .306
Vlad Guerrero .313 .345
Jeff Bagwell .273 .310
Gary Sheffield .285 .325
Sammy Sosa .300 .320
Bobby Abreu .259 .316
Chipper Jones .290 .311
Totals .298 .325
NL Average without these 10 players: .257 in 2001, .262 in 2000.
NL Average (including all NL players): .259 in 2001, .266 in 2000.
American League
Hitter 2001 2000
Derek Jeter .289 .339
Edgar Martinez .324 .324
Manny Ramirez .375 .351
Alex Rodriguez .332 .316
Carlos Delgado .267 .344
Jason Giambi .352 .333
Mike Sweeney .305 .333
Troy Glaus .278 .284
Darin Erstad .289 .355
Rafael Palmeiro .250 .288
So just those 10 hitters are down an average of nearly 20 points in batting average. Which tells us whatever effect there has been on hitters, it's been generally across the board. And that, of course, was the whole idea.
We keep talking about the Mariners and their gargantuan lead in the AL West. But don't overlook the historic pace of the Rangers. They were 27 games out through Sunday. And Elias' Rob Tracy reports they're the first team since 1900 to be that far out after games of June 10.
The most games out of first that any team has finished since the start of division play in 1969: 50½, by the '79 Blue Jays.
The weekend was full of great interleague feats. Detroit's Damion Easley became the first American Leaguer ever to hit for the cycle against an NL team, including the World Series. But we have had an NL player hit for the cycle against an AL team -- Dante Bichette, for Colorado against Texas, on June 10, 1998.
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List of the week
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The latest, greatest feat by Manny Ramirez: three home runs in three days last week -- in three different parks (SkyDome, Yankee Stadium, Fenway).
Here, courtesy of David Vincent, are the only other players to do that, with date of the first HR:
Chuck Klein, Phillies (8/31/1929)
Braves Field
Ebbets Field
Polo Grounds
Lou Gehrig, Yankees (8/29/1931)
Shibe Park
Braves Field
Yankee Stadium
Earl Torgeson, Braves (5/11/1947)
Polo Grounds
Ebbets Field
Wrigley Field
Bill Howerton, Cardinals (9/3/1950)
Forbes Field
Crosley Field
Sportsman's Park
Stan Musial, Cardinals (9/3/1950)
Same games as Howerton
Walker Cooper, Braves (7/22/1951)
Braves Field
Forbes Field
Crosley Field
Hank Sauer, Giants (8/7/1957)
Roosevelt Stadium
Ebbets Field
Polo Grounds
Frank Howard, Senators (5/15/1968)
Fenway Park
Cleveland Stadium
Tiger Stadium
Joe Hague, Cardinals (8/14/1971)
Busch Stadium
Three Rivers Stadium
Riverfront Stadium
Chris Sabo, Reds (7/31/1990)
Dodger Stadium
San Diego/Jack Murphy Stadium
Riverfront Stadium
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Barry Bonds hasn't gone homerless over a full series against a National League team since May 7-10 (vs. Montreal). That's eight straight series. But he went homerless in his first series against an AL team, this weekend in Oakland.
When Carlos Lee hit a game-winning, 10th-inning, walkoff slam against the Cubs on Friday, he became the first player ever to hit an extra-inning slam in any interleague game, World Series or otherwise.
The Devil Rays haven't won two games in a row against an AL team since April 24-25. That's 39 straight games. But they won their first two games against an NL team (the Mets) this year. Maybe they're just in the wrong league.
Pedro Martinez hasn't given up four runs in any game against an AL team in Fenway Park in the last three seasons. But Saturday, he did it for the second time against an NL team, allowing five against the Phillies. The only other time was the game after the '99 All Star Game, when he allowed nine runs against Florida, then headed to the DL.
Josh Towers threw a complete-game shutout against a team from the other league (the Expos) before he ever did that against a team from his own league. He's the ninth pitcher to pull off that feat, and the first since Jesus Sanchez last year, according to Elias' Ken Hirdt.
Then there's Mike Hampton. His two-homer game Tuesday was just the seventh by a pitcher in the DH era. The others, courtesy of the Sultan of Swat Stats, SABR's David Vincent:
Sept. 5, 1976 -- Larry Christenson, Phillies vs. Mets
Sept. 30, 1978 -- Randy Lerch, Phillies vs. Pirates
Aug. 6, 1983 -- Walt Terrell, Mets vs. Cubs
May 12, 1985 -- Jim Gott, Giants vs. Cardinals
May 1, 1990 -- Derek Lilliquist, Braves vs. Mets
Aug. 8, 2000 -- Darren Dreifort, Dodgers vs. Cubs
And now the only pitchers since 1968 to hit as many homers in a season as Hampton (five):
Earl Wilson, 1968, 7
Ferguson Jenkins, 1971, 6
Sonny Siebert, 1971, 6
Rick Wise, 1971, 6
Bob Gibson, 1972, 5
Johnny Odom, 1969, 5
Next up from our Mike Hampton bureau: The only active pitchers who have hit as many home runs in their whole careers as Hampton has this year are Andy Benes (7), Dreifort (6) and Shane Reynolds (5).
But Hampton hasn't just hit a lot of home runs for a pitcher. He's hit a ton of home runs for anybody. This guy has five in 38 at-bats, which computes to one every 7.4 at-bats.
Here are the best at-bats-per-homer ratios of all NL hitters with five home runs or more:
Barry Bonds, 5.8
Mike Hampton, 7.4
Erubiel Durazo, 9.1
Luis Gonzalez, 9.2
J.D. Drew, 9.8
Wes Ferrell, who set the all-time record for homers by a pitcher, hit nine in 116 at-bats in 1931. At his current rate, Hampton would hit his ninth in his 67th at-bat.
Meanwhile, the Astros -- who allowed those two homers to Hampton -- had also given up a home run to a pitcher (Eric Gagne, off Kent Bottenfield) in their previous game last week. So Vincent reports they're only the fifth team to cough up three homers to pitchers over a span of two games (or less). Last to do it (or top it): the Cubs gave up three in one game to the Braves' Jim Tobin, on May 13, 1942.
That also makes four home runs the Astros have served up to the ever-grateful pitching populace just this year. That puts them within reach of more historic accomplishments. The record for homers allowed to pitchers in the 28-season DH era is six, by the '95 Cubs and '77 Astros.
We know that when the Tigers intentionally walked Manny Ramirez four times in one game last Tuesday, it tied the AL record but left Ramirez one short of the major-league record.
Officially, Andre Dawson holds that one, with five intentional walks by those terrified Reds, on May 22, 1990. But Lee Sinins, of baseballimmortals.net, points out that intentional walks has been an official statistic since 1955. And before that, there was one other known instance of a hitter intentionally walking five times.
That was on Oct. 5, 1929, the final day of the 1929 season. The Giants and Phillies were playing a doubleheader, with the Giants' Mel Ott and the Phillies' Chuck Klein tied for the league lead in homers, with 29. Klein homered in the first game to take the lead. So to make sure he won, the Phillies intentionally walked Ott five straight times in Game 2. He's believed to be the only hitter ever to do that in a nine-inning game.
Also in that game in which Ramirez got to practice his intentional walk, Boston's Shea Hillenbrand hit a home run in the 18th inning to win it. Here are the only other homers hit in the 18th inning or later in the last 20 years, again courtesy of David Vincent:
18th inning
Rick Camp, Braves July 4, 1985
Billy Hatcher, Astros, Sept. 2, 1986
Randy Johnson, Braves, Sept. 6, 1984
Jeff King, Pirates, Aug. 6, 1989
Claudell Washington, Yankees, Sept. 11, 1988
19th inning
Mike Cameron, Mariners, Aug. 1, 2000
Tim Naehring, Red Sox, April 11, 1992
21st inning
Dick Allen, White Sox, May 26, 1973
Ben Oglivie, Brewers, May 8, 1984
22nd inning
Rick Dempsey, Dodgers, Aug. 23, 1989
25th inning
Harold Baines, White Sox, May 8, 1984
In their very first interleague game, the Rangers and Astros worked overtime (11 innings, to be exact). Back when Texas had two NFL teams, the Cowboys and Oilers played eight times -- and went to O.T. once, in 1991 (Oilers 26, Cowboys 23).
Until last week, only three left-handed hitters had gotten a hit off Randy Johnson all season: Barry Bonds, Larry Walker and Fernando Vina. The fourth to do it: Padres pitcher Kevin Jarvis.
Devon White is just going to have to hit another grand slam. When he homered Friday in Detroit, it gave him as many non-slams this year (three) as slams. Last to have more slams than non-slams in a season: Todd Benzinger (four to two) and Bob Zupcic (three to two), both in 1992.
Believe it or not, no team has scored two runs or fewer in more games this year than the Mets. They're tied with the Devil Rays and Expos, at 23 each. The Dodgers are next, with 20. The Mariners, naturally, have done it the fewet times, with a mere six.
We know Albert Pujols leads all rookies in home runs, with 19. You may not know that the next-closest rookie (Julio Zuleta) has six.
If Omar Daal keeps it up, he'll make the greatest turnaround of any 19-game loser of modern times. To find the last 19-game loser to have a winning record the next year (and win in double figures), you have to go all the way back to 1978-79, when Rick Wise lost 20, then went 15-10 for Cleveland.
Injury of the week: the Pirates' John Wehner wound up on the DL with a shoulder injury after John Vander Wal somehow careened into him on the team bus.
And the transactions feat of the week has to go to the Red Sox -- who placed a shortstop on the disabled list three straight days last week -- Craig Grebeck on Tuesday, Lou Merloni on Wednesday, John Valentin on Thursday. Tough to do, especially when you consider that their real shortstop (that Nomar guy) was already on the DL.
Trivia answer
The Alous (Moises and Felipe), the Bondses (Barry and Bobby), the Griffeys (Ken Sr. and Jr.), the Bells (David and Buddy), the Grieves (Ben and Tom) and the Wards (Daryle and Gary).
Jayson Stark is a Senior Writer at ESPN.com. Rumblings and Grumblings appears each Monday.
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