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Friday, June 20, 2008

Madden: Hank Steinbrenner can thank interleague play for soft schedule

Back from a late night of droopy-drawed tangoing at a Wing Toy Oriental Orchestra gig...Madden delivers.

Still, there is one caveat to all this, which I hate to bring up to Son of Boss Hank: The hard truth is, much of this Yankee resurgence, in which all of their pitchers have excelled, has been accomplished through - dare we say it? - interleague play.

The Wang injury, suffered while running the bases in Houston, really got our boy Hank hacked off about Bud Selig’s interleague play novelty, but look at the record: It’s been a boon for the Yankees! In completing their second straight sweep of National League dregs, the Yankees upped their interleague record to 6-2 this season and their 119 interleague wins overall are the most of any team in the majors. Even the day Wang went down, they crushed the Astros, 13-0.

...Up next: The last-place, 33-41 Cincinnati Reds, followed by the 34-39 Pittsburgh Pirates and, finally, the Mets and all of their turmoil. Was that Hank Steinbrenner we heard shouting, “Interleague play - bring it on!”?

Repoz Posted: June 20, 2008 at 03:34 PM | 14 comment(s)
Related News: General, NY Yankees

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1. Templeusox has reached his genetic threshold Posted: June 20, 2008 at 03:44 PM (#2827419)

While the Sox play the Cardinals, Phillies, and Diamondbacks.

And I think the Devil Rays schedule is even tougher.

2. HGH Positive Posted: June 20, 2008 at 04:02 PM (#2827466)

and, finally, the Mets and all of their turmoil

6-2, thanks to those Mets.

3. Brandon in MO (for America!) Posted: June 20, 2008 at 04:10 PM (#2827479)

And the Royals get to play the Diamondbacks, Marlins, and Cardinals.

Although it hasn't been a huge problem so far. ;)

4. Yankee_Redneck Posted: June 20, 2008 at 04:21 PM (#2827504)

If the author wants to eliminate the gimmicky interleague play, he's certainly going about it the right way. Just the whiff of a hint that the current design favors the Yankees should be enough to prompt action from the forces of Bushovism.

5. OCD SS Posted: June 20, 2008 at 04:55 PM (#2827548)

I'm sure Hank thinks playing NL teams is fine, just as long as the games are by AL rules no matter which team is at home.

This is what he wants and the NL just needs to grow up an accept it.

6. AJM Misses Brodeur Posted: June 20, 2008 at 05:16 PM (#2827593)

the Mets ~~and all of their turmoil~~ who kicked their ass the last time they played

7. JRVJ (formerly Delta Socrates) Posted: June 20, 2008 at 05:25 PM (#2827616)

Considering that Madden mentions not just this season but interleague play since it started (he mentions 119 Yankee wins in interleague play), it would behoove him to also look at whether the Yankees have gotten a strong or weak interleague schedule.

I haven't done research on the matter, but I have the impression that the Yankees have had a pretty strong interleague schedule, and that this year they've been luckier (e.g., the Padres were supposed to be better than this as were the Mets).

8. Rocco's Malfunctioning Mitochondria (Brickhaus) Posted: June 20, 2008 at 06:03 PM (#2827666)

And I think the Devil Rays schedule is even tougher.

It dumbfounds me how the schedule-makers could give the worst team in the league the hardest schedule in the league. Evening out interleague a bit to account for strength of opposition would take away a lot of the ammunition from the interleague haters, and seems to be something that would be relatively easy to do.

9. Matt Clement of Alexandria Posted: June 20, 2008 at 06:10 PM (#2827669)

Just the whiff of a hint that the current design favors the Yankees should be enough to prompt action from the forces of Bushovism.

That's silly.

The revenue sharing system negatively affects the Yankees (though they seem to be doing just fine regardless), but there have been no rule changes not related to the distribution of revenue that have had any connection to the Yankees.

10. There's a chill wind blowing in Misirlou's soul Posted: June 20, 2008 at 06:26 PM (#2827681)

It dumbfounds me how the schedule-makers could give the worst team in the league the hardest schedule in the league. Evening out interleague a bit to account for strength of opposition would take away a lot of the ammunition from the interleague haters, and seems to be something that would be relatively easy to do.

The Rays play the Cards, Cubs, Astros, Pirates, and the Marlins 6 times. Who would have thought the Cards, Marlins, or the Cubs (who got swept BTW) this good? At the start of the season one could easily say the Rays were given a cake interleague schedule. You can't change the schedule in mid season.

11. seeking a clever screen name since 1999 Posted: June 20, 2008 at 06:33 PM (#2827686)

Evening out interleague a bit to account for strength of opposition would take away a lot of the ammunition from the interleague haters, and seems to be something that would be relatively easy to do.

Having a set rotation where everybody plays everybody in the other league once every three seasons and every team in a division plays the same interleague opponents in any given season would take away just about all of the fairness arguments. You know, do it the way it was supposed to work when they started the whole "experiment"? Of course, you'd have to have the same number of teams in each league to really do that right. And that means you'd have to play interleague games all through the season, instead of in a two week hype-pack.

12. There's a chill wind blowing in Misirlou's soul Posted: June 20, 2008 at 06:37 PM (#2827691)

To follow up #10, here are the DMB projections for the Ray's opponents, before the season started:

Marlins 69-93
Cubs 87-75
Cards 76-86
Pirates 76-86
Astros 74-88

All but the Astros are playing better than their projection, all but the Pirates much much better. Can't blame the scheduler for that.

13. scareduck Posted: June 20, 2008 at 10:46 PM (#2828054)

4-2 Reds, though that may fall into the blind-squirrel-finds-a-nut department.

14. SoSHially Unacceptable Posted: June 20, 2008 at 11:12 PM (#2828113)

Here's a solution for evening out the interleague schedules:

The AL East, Central and West teams should play 0 games against the NL East, 0 against the NL Central and 0 against the NL West. Perfectly balanced and fair.

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Madden: Hank Steinbrenner can thank interleague play for soft schedule

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