30 years ago, back in 1996, MLB made a huge announcement. Maybe inspired by Martin Luther King Jr. on a much less serious scale, America’s Pastime approved the end of baseball segregation! The American League could now enter National League stadiums without hesitation, and the NL was welcomed into AL ballparks. Interleague play would be introduced into the 1997 season and going forward.
The decision was made to create new rivals and new interests, just in time for the games’ newest franchises. The Tampa Bay Devil Rays and Arizona Diamondbacks are lucky enough to see little National League and little American League boys and girls talking smack to each other, rooting for their respective hometown teams.
The Approval that Changed Baseball Forever!
Remember when the NL was the NL, and the AL was the AL? No crossover, no sitting together at the lunch table, we will see you in the World Series (in my best Kit Keller impression). That’s right, we weren’t going to see the New York Yankees in a weekend subway series against the Mets, or the Wrigleyville lovable Cubs going to the Southside to take on the White Sox.
That all changed with the baseball owners’ unanimous vote. They finally joined the rest of the major sports in the country, allowing one league or conference to play the other during the regular season. The owners believed this would add further intrigue and create more rivalries that would draw in all baseball fans. And it did!
Back in my day, the National League pitchers were forced to be in the lineup, typically batting 9th. So we would see the American League pitchers enter the batter’s box in an NL ballpark, looking super awkward and hacking at a baseball they have no right to hit! Now that’s what I call entertaining!
On the contrary, we would see another hitter being added to an NL team’s lineup in an unfamiliar Designated Hitter spot. What other sport had rules for its opposing conferences? Imagine if the Western Conference in the NBA were not allowed to shoot three-pointers, or if the NHL had to play with a skater in the net. It was wild having different rules, and it was like that until 2022.
I miss the days of pitchers at the bottom of the lineup, but for the average fan, it’s probably best for baseball. The rules would apply; whichever team was hosting the opposition would have to adjust. Again, the rule change of the DH could have fans on both sides of the fence, but the interleague integration was definitely the right call.
The first game fans witnessed was the Texas Rangers hosting the San Francisco Giants. Glenallen Hill became the first regular-season National League Designated Hitter in history. A trivia question that I doubt your buddy Paulie sitting at the rail of the bar will know. The Giants would win a close 4-3 game in Arlington, putting the NL undefeated against the AL for a short time.
Final Thoughts
This is one of the greatest improvements that Major League Baseball has implemented. Usually, I hate rule changes in the games I love, but this was the right call. Every other major sports league has crossover; why not baseball? Now, every year we get Yankees vs. Mets, White Sox vs. Cubs, and Angels vs. Dodgers. I love to see my Tigers walk into a National League park and take care of business. This also gives fans a possible World Series preview during the long regular season. 162 games is too long to be playing the same 13 or 14 teams over and over again.
