As an old school baseball purest, I will be the first tell you that I am not, nor have I ever been a fan of interleague play in the MLB. In fact, I like it only slightly less than the Designated Hitter rule in baseball. Now perhaps if the American League did away with the DH rule I would like interleague more… but probably not. What was wrong with “We’ll take our best team and pit them against your best team and we’ll call it the World Series?”

The disparity between the American League and the National League is huge in interleague play because of the DH rule. If you don’t think so, just take a look at the record between the AL and the NL since interleague play began; it isn’t even close – the record is 1937-1773 in favor of the AL. In fact, since its inception in 1997, there have been only four seasons (out of 15 – not including 2012) where the NL won more games than the AL and none since 2003. With numbers as blatant as these, why on earth does MLB continue interleague play and, more importantly, continue with the DH rule? Sure, I enjoy watching the Dodgers play teams that I rarely get to see play except on TV, but the overall average attendance during interleague play is 33,269. While this might be considered a large average crowd for teams like the Rays, Blue Jays, Royals, etc., it is well below the average attendance for middle and major market teams. So why continue with it? Only Bud Selig knows the answer to that question.

As much as I dislike interleague play, it did allow for me to witness some great moments, like Ken Griffey Jr.'s 620th career home run.

Even though AL pitchers must bat during interleague play in NL ballparks, AL teams still have an advantage (in my opinion). Their rosters are set up to include designated hitters whereas NL teams must use bench players to DH when playing in AL ballparks. Additionally, NL managers are accustomed to having to make double switches during games to work around having their relievers bat whereas AL managers never have to even give this a thought. Their pitchers simply sit in the dugout sipping Gatorade while NL pitchers must not only must bat, but they are expected to be great bunters (which most are not) and if they do happen to get on base, they are required to run the bases and occasionally slide. The results speak for themselves – having the DH rule gives an overall distinct advantage to AL teams – especially during interleague play in AL ballparks.

And when you look at how the Dodgers have fared during interleague play over the years, the results are even worse. In 239 interleague games, the Dodgers are 109-130 (.456). And I’m expected to like interleague play why? Never gonna happen.

Interleague play also allowed me to fulfill a life-long dream of visiting Fenway Park in Boston where (you guessed it) the Dodgers were swept by the Red Sox.

To be fair, as a long-time season ticket holder I have enjoyed seeing teams like the Yankees, the Tigers, and the Ken Griffey Jr. and Ichiro Suzuki led Mariners come into Chavez Ravine to play the Dodgers for interleague play, in spite of the results. I was able to get several autographs that I otherwise would not have gotten, like Johnny Damon and Jim Leyland, to name a couple. In fact, the last time that I saw the Yankees at Dodger Stadium in person was during Game-3 of the 1963 World Series and the results were a lot different than they were during interleague play against them in 2010 (Damn you Broxton!).  Interleague play also allowed me to travel to historic Fenway Park in Boston to watch the Red Sox take on the Dodgers; but here again, the Dodgers were swept in three games.  I have absolutely no problem with interleague play during spring training, in fact I was blessed to attend one of the greatest spring training games of all time when the Red Sox played the Dodgers at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum in 2008 in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Dodgers moving to L.A. The field was set up to closely resemble the one that the Dodgers played on from 1958-62 while Dodger Stadium was being built and the event drew an new all-time U.S. sporting event record of 115,000 fans. Oh, by the way – the Red Sox won.

Watching the Dodgers take on the Red Sox at the L.A. Coliseum was an awesome experience for me and 115,000 other fans.

Who knows, maybe the 2012 edition of interleague play will be different for the Dodgers; after all, they just swept the Phillies in Philadelphia, something that they haven’t done since 1946.