You'll have to pardon Blue Jays players, employees and fans alike if they tend to develop a facial tic or break out in hives when hearing the words "Interleague play". That's because the Jays are to Interleague success what Jon and Kate are to marital bliss.
Don't believe it? Then let's review the gory details of Toronto's recent Interleague history, shall we?
2009 - The Jays go 7-11, the only losing record posted by any of the five teams in the AL East. When Interleague play began this year, Toronto sat in first place in its division by a half game. When it ended this past Sunday, the Jays were in fourth, six games off the pace. Most embarrassingly, the Jays dropped 2 of 3 to the woeful Washington Nationals. That would be the 22-52 Washington Nationals.
2008: The Jays go 8-10, the only losing record posted by any of the five teams in the AL East. Hmm, now where have we heard that before? The low point of Interleague '08 was a three-game sweep in Milwaukee resulting in the firings of John Gibbons, Ernie Whitt and two other coaches. The Jays players were so inspired by the coaching change, they promptly lost 2 of 3 to the pitiful Pittsburgh Pirates.
2007: Toronto goes 10-8. Interleague play has been around for 13 seasons now. This was only Toronto's third winning campaign in all of those years.
2006: The Jays play to an even record of 9-9, which sounds like somewhat of an impressive achievement. That is until you realize that .500 record ranked 9th out of the 14 American League teams. Three of those losses came in Denver, in a series that saw the Jays held to just one home run in homer-happy Coors Field. More importantly, it was during that Rockies sweep that tensions first arose between Gibbons and Shea Hillenbrand. Those tensions escalated dramatically later in the summer, leading to Hillenbrand's untimely departure from what he called "a sinking ship".
2005: The Jays finished with an 8-10 record. Toronto was swept in Houston by an Astros team that entered the series 12 games under .500. In the second game in the set, the Jays rallied to tie with two runs in the top of the ninth off super-closer Brad Lidge. In the bottom of the ninth, Morgan Ensberg hit a three-run bomb for a 6-3 walk-off win. The Jays were entirely demoralized. The Astros were entirely energized and went on a run from there that vaulted them to that year's World Series.
The checkered history goes much further back, but at this point it should already be entirely clear the Jays have made an annual habit of short circuiting against the Senior Circuit.
All of which must have some Jays fans wondering, "Why do we even bother with this Interleague thing anyways?" It's actually a fair question to ask because it's pretty easy to refute the major arguments in favour of Interleague play.
1) Interleague play boosts attendance and generates interest -- Really? This might very well be the case in New York (Yankees vs. Mets), Chicago (Sox vs. Cubs) and Los Angeles (Angels vs. Dodgers) where the locals get all hot and bothered over in-city rivalries. But it's certainly not the case in Toronto and most other points around baseball. The average paid attendance for Toronto's nine Interleague home dates this season was 23,016. The average for its other 31 home games? 23,010.
2) Interleague play lets fans get a look at stars from the other league -- It's a treat for any AL fan to see Albert Pujols and Tim Lincecum. But in this day and age of all-sports television and the Internet, if you haven't yet seen these stars your only possible excuse is an unpaid cable bill. It's also overstating matters to suggest visiting stars ever budge the attendance needle much. This past week, the Cincinnati Reds rolled into Toronto with local hero Joey Votto in the lineup. The second and third games in the set both ranked among the five lowest attendance figures at Rogers Centre this season. The Reds were followed into town by the defending World Series champs, the Philadelphia Phillies. Surely, Toronto would want to see Utley, Howard or Hamels in person right? Ummm....well, no. The crowd for the series opener on Friday night, a game started by Hamels, the World Series MVP, was 21,331. That's just slightly more than the 20,202 paying customers that watched the Jays play the Orioles on a Friday night back in early May.
3) Interleague play lets fans enjoy a different style of baseball -- Pitchers batting? No thank you - awful to watch. Pitchers running the bases? No thank you -- that's worse. How silly is it the Blue Jays are without closer Scott Downs because he injured himself running out of the batter's box? And how much of a shame is it Chien-Ming Wang's career has been entirely derailed by a foot injury suffered on the basepaths in Houston last spring? Before the injury, the Yankees hurler had pitched to a 54-20 record with a 3.79 ERA. Since then, he holds a 1-6 mark with a 10.06 ERA. Let's hear it for Interleague play, ladies and gentlemen!
4) Interleague play gives bragging rights to one league over the other -- Listen, the AL has gone undefeated in the All-Star Game since 1997. Over that same period of time, it has won 7 of the 12 World Series. We really don't need Interleague play to remind us the National League is a big step up from Triple A, but an equally big step below the AL. Oh, but if we did, we could point to the fact the AL has produced a winning record against the NL in eight of the last ten years, including the last six straight.
5) Interleague play stokes regional rivalries -- Is geographical proximity really reason enough to reward the Rays with six games against the mostly miserable Marlins? Or the Mariners with six games against the pitiful pathetic Padres? No. Not when teams like the Jays and Angels get stuck in home and away series respectively with the defending champs from Philadelphia and the team the Phillies beat to advance to that World Series, the L.A. Dodgers. Incidentally, the Rays went 5-1 against the Marlins, outscoring them 44-17 in those six games. If the Rays end up winning the Wild Card by a game or two over either the Angels or the Jays, you might have to look back at Interleague play and its scheduling irregularities as one of the major reasons for their success.
At one time, Interleague play was a clever gimmick to sell tickets and generate revenue. It was neat to see the Jays face the Expos (and drink from the Pearson Cup, baby!) or watch the Yankees and Mets ride cross-town buses to face one another. The question now with Major League Baseball producing annual revenues in excess of $6 billion, is whether Interleague play is still necessary or even worth it? Given its history, the Toronto Blue Jays Baseball Club would be happy to play on without it.
Will Hill spent seven seasons in upper management with the Toronto Blue Jays, but never once got to sip from the Pearson Cup.