It’s was a good idea at the time.
Back in 1997, Major League Baseball broke one of its big taboos by allowing inter-league play.
Before that year, the two major leagues, the National League and American League only played games within their own circuits.
The two leagues are separate entities with the National League being formed in 1876 and the rival American League forming in 1900.
The first World Series in 1903 was the first inter-league game between the league champions; the Pittsburgh Pirates and Boston Pilgrims (now Red Sox).
Except for the invention of the all-star game in 1933, it was the only time the two leagues met other than in exhibition spring training games.
In all of that time, there was pressure on Major League Baseball, namely, the commissioner, to have some inter-league play during the season.
Most of it came from fans that had two teams in one city.
New York had three teams in the early part of the 20th century; the New York Yankees (AL), New York Giants (NL), and Brooklyn Dodgers.
Boston had the Red Sox (AL) and Braves (NL), St. Louis had the Cardinals (NL) and Browns (AL), Chicago still has the Cubs (NL) and White Sox (AL), and Philadelphia had the Phillies (NL) and Athletics (AL).
The leagues stayed separate in baseball’s golden era giving the World Series some mystique; a meeting of two teams that didn’t know each other.
MLB Players Strike of 1994 changes owners thinking
Baseball commissioner Bud Selig had to rethink the sport’s situation following the costly 1994 strike that cancelled the World Series for the first time in 90 years and drove many fans away from the game.
The fans finally got their wish in June 12, 1997. The first official inter-league game was the San Francisco Giants at the Texas Rangers.
The next day, the New York Mets visited the New York Yankees, setting off the first time the two teams played in a game that counted. In Chicago, the White Sox played the Cubs. In Los Angeles, the freeway series took hold with the Dodgers and the Angels.
Attendance jumped with the Phillies playing the Red Sox for the first time since the 1915 world series.
The 2008 inter-league run also had an interesting tid-bit, when the New York Yankees visited Pittsburgh to pay the Pirates, the first time since the 1960 World Series when Bill Mazaroski’s walk off home run won it for Pittsburgh in the seventh game costing Yankees manager Casey Stengel his job.
Owners still making money off inter-league
Attendance for inter-league games, has increased steadily in the 12 years since its inception, from 7,149,001 fans in 1997 to 8,893,312 in 2008.
Although some baseball purists would like to see inter-league play go away, the owners will not give up on it as long as it bring fans to the park.
American League teams also like inter-league play. They won the last five years, including this year’s series 149-102.
