Things you may not have known about the 2005 MLB schedule:
Every American League team gets six interleague opponents, including two on the "rivalry weekends" and four basically division-versus-division in the phase we're in right now. So far, not so bad.
Many National League teams also get six interleague opponents, but since 16 > 14, not all of them can get an AL opponent for all six of those series slots. (And contrary to what I would have assumed, there seems to be no interleague play at all other than those six particular slots). Weird things that follow from this:
Pittsburgh gets four AL East opponents but no "rivalry" at all. This surely beats having an arbitrary home-and-home, like that fabled, hotly-contested Arizona Diamondback-Detroit Tiger saga.
Houston only gets two AL East opponents, taking the NL-only series for one slot but also randomly facing Kansas City.
Colorado faces Kansas City on one of the "rivalry" weekends instead of during the divisional part. As if to make up for this (or heaven forbid give them a home-and-home, since apparently COL-KC is no ARI-DET as rivalries go), they randomly gratuitously get Baltimore once instead of a normal AL Central opponent.
Seriously, look at the matchups this coming weeked:
Among the "obvious" pairings would be Colorado at Minnesota, San Diego at Kansas City, Houston at Baltimore. True, Houston at Baltimore is the series immediately prior, but for that slot itself there's no obvious reason for HOU-BAL and MIL-TAM as opposed to HOU-TAM and MIL-BAL.
Did the schedulemakers just not even attempt to do something valid and consistent?
Also, how can you have a valid schedule wherein Colorado has one fewer interleague series than its NL West mates, Pittsburgh one fewer than its NL Central mates, but Washington one more than its NL East mates? At the very least shouldn't Pittsburgh have gotten one of those "rivalry" Toronto series? (Especially since Toronto happens to be the only AL East opponent Pittsburgh doesn't face in the current two-week span.)
Posted by Matt Bruce at June 13, 2005 10:35 AMWhy not make the Tigers and Pirates the interleague rivals? Oh wait, because that would make sense. We could even contest the Kidder Cup during that period.
CDB
Posted by: Craig Barker at June 13, 2005 04:06 PMThe Diamondbacks-Tigers rivarly is because of me. I grew up in Detroit and now live in Phoenix. This is perfect, I get to see my two favorite baseball teams in a single game. It's the best baseball I can see.
Seriously (I'm serious about everything above except that being because of me) I have no idea why these teams play each other... but I'm happy about it.
Posted by: John at June 13, 2005 06:08 PM