Interleague play just not interesting

Darren Oliver threw the first pitch in interleague history, way back in 1997, back when the prospect of mingling the two leagues in regular-season play was still exotic and enticing.

Oliver pitched for the Rangers then (facing Darryl Hamilton of the Giants, who singled in that debut matchup, if you want to win a trivia bet) and the Angels now. On Thursday, the eve of the 11th go-round of interleague play, he summed up the general view of ballplayers regarding its ever-declining allure.

"I think it's died down," Oliver said at Safeco Field. "Except for the natural rivalries, like Yankees-Mets, us and the Dodgers, the Giants-A's, White Sox-Cubs. Other than that, it's kind of died out."

Mariners manager Mike Hargrove was even stronger in his buzz-kill.

"I don't think there's any anticipation," he said. "It's just part of the schedule. I think if most people were really honest with you, they'd say they'd just as soon stay in their own leagues."

Don't let commissioner Bud Selig hear that kind of talk. He'll point to statistics showing that crowds swell for interleague games, with record attendance forecast for this weekend.

He'll hype the intriguing matchups, like John Smoltz against Daisuke Matsuzaka on Saturday, Roger Clemens facing the Mets in June, Barry Bonds stepping into Fenway to face the Red Sox that same month.

Selig will swoon over the annual debates that are stirred about which is the superior league (the American League reigned supreme last year with a .611 winning percentage in interleague games, on top of their nine consecutive All-Star wins).

But the fact is, other than the fierce rivalries that Oliver delineated, which are still hugely appealing attractions, many interleague games have indeed become blasé.

And sorry, the Mariners versus Padres “showdown” that renews this weekend at Safeco does not stir any juices, despite Major League Baseball’s insistence on maintaining Seattle and San Diego as so-called natural rivals with annual home-and-home series. Perhaps only that time-honored Rockies-Royals rivalry is more superfluous.

On Thursday in Houston, a reporter jokingly asked former Padres manager Bruce Bochy, now the Giants’ skipper, if he missed the bloodthirsty rivalry between the Padres and Mariners. With a smile, Bochy replied, “Yeah, I’m going to miss the intensity, the heart palpitations, not sleeping the night before.”

Even more troublesome, the interleague schedule has become increasingly inequitable, as Atlanta's Chipper Jones pointed out recently, and at times downright baffling.

The Braves must play two interleague series against the Red Sox, perhaps the best team in the AL, while one of their National League East rivals, the Phillies, play this weekend against the reeling Blue Jays. The Braves also play the Tigers, Indians and Twins in interleague, while the Phillies get the Royals along with the White Sox, Tigers and Indians.

"I don't think there's any question it's unfair — when you play the [three] best teams in the American League," Jones told reporters Sunday. "But Major League Baseball isn't concerned about what's fair."

Take the AL West, which this year is matched against the NL Central — for the most part. Except for the fact that the Athletics, alone out of the four AL West teams, must venture into the NL East to play the mighty Mets ... at Shea. The A's and Angels face the World Series champion Cardinals, while the Mariners and Rangers don't. Only Texas must play against the resurgent Brewers, who have emerged as a playoff contender.

Asked if scheduling inequities bothered him, Hargrove replied, "It doesn't bother me to the extent there's nothing I can do about it. It does bother me sometimes when teams within your own division kind of skate on a tough team. Yeah, that's bothersome."

Jayson Stark of ESPN recently pointed out a host of other anomalies in the interleague schedule, such as:

• The Mets play all 15 of their interleague games against teams that made the playoffs last year (six against the Yankees, plus the Tigers, Twins, and A's), while the Cubs, Dodgers and Padres don't play any teams that made the playoffs.

• The Diamondbacks of the NL West play both the Yankees and Red Sox, while the Dodgers, in the same division, play neither. But for some reason, the Dodgers play a home-and-home against Toronto and three games with Tampa Bay.

• The Tigers play the Mets, Braves, Cardinals and Brewers, while the White Sox, from the same division, play none of those teams.

That's only a few head-scratchers from a long list. But Angels manager Mike Scioscia believes teams should just play their schedule and not whine about it.

"If you're a good team, you overcome challenges, and if you're a good team, whoever you play, you're going to win," Scioscia said.

I'm still a proponent of interleague play, though not as enthusiastically as a decade ago, when the notion was still fresh.

When Ken Griffey Jr. returns to Seattle on June 22, it should be one of the great Mariners moments. The Mariners' first visit to Wrigley Field on June 12-14 also promises to be a series to savor.

The sad truth, however, is that when it comes to interleague play, the mundane — and the mismatched — have caught up with the memorable.

Larry Stone: 206-464-3146 or lstone@seattletimes.com