Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Rocket’ may make bang at Wrigley

Ah, the first week of June, signifying the start of the lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer, the possible beginning -- sometime soon -- of the NBA Finals and the culmination of the battle for the Stanley Cup before the ice melts.

And interleague play in Major League Baseball.

Fans of Atlanta and Oakland are rejoicing, because those teams used exceptional interleague records to win their divisions last year.

The Athletics pounced on their National League foes, winning 16 of 18 games. They swept three-game series from Cincinnati, Houston, Milwaukee and Pittsburgh, then took four of six from San Francisco.

Oakland, which had a five-victory edge over Anaheim and Seattle in interleague action, won the AL West by four games.

The Braves were 15-3 against the American League, winning five of six from Boston, and sweeping three from Texas and the Chicago White Sox.

Atlanta ran away with the NL East, by 19 games, so its 13-6 dominance over second-place Montreal at least had plenty to do with its mastery of its own division. The Expos, by the way, were 12-6 vs. the American League last season.

Back in the AL, the Angels overcame Oakland's interleague edge by stomping through the playoffs to win their first World Series. They did it by earning the AL wild card with a 99-63 record, six games better than Boston.

So those losses to the Braves were damaging for the Red Sox, especially considering no other AL East team had to play Atlanta.

Compelling cases can be made about the discrepancies in interleague schedules, but that will be the case as long as the American League has 14 teams and the National has 16.

In certain venues, interleague play has provided a much-needed boost to attendance. The Cubs' visit to Comiskey Park in 1997 was their first official meeting with the White Sox since they played in the 1906 World Series.

The '97 season kicked off the interleague concept, and the first series took place in Arlington, Texas, pitting the San Francisco Giants and Rangers. Think Texas fans were eager for the arrival of Barry Bonds?

A night later, Atlanta fans gave Cal Ripken Jr. of the Baltimore Orioles a standing ovation.

Last year, San Francisco visited the Bronx. It was the first Giants-Yankees meeting since 1962. Before that, they had played six times -- from 1921-51 -- in the World Series as New York-based teams.

Roger Clemens and Mike Mussina won their starts last season as the Yankees took two of three from the Giants in Yankee Stadium.

Moreover, the Dodgers took two of three in Baltimore last summer, the first time those teams played since the Orioles swept the 1966 World Series from Los Angeles.

Atlanta starting pitcher and Valley High graduate Greg Maddux loves pitching against the Junior Circuit, as his 14-3 record is the best in six years of interleague games. Maddux has thrown six complete games, including five shutouts.

Of course, some interleague matchups are hardly as interesting. Let us provide a map for the next month:

New York Yankees at Chicago Cubs -- Friday, Saturday and Sunday night.

Incredibly, the already-feverish anticipation of the Bronx Bombers' first visit to Wrigley Field since 1938 was heightened Sunday when Clemens failed to get win No. 300 in Detroit.

The Rocket is scheduled to go for it again Saturday afternoon against the Cubs and the heir apparent to Clemens' fireballing aura, ace Kerry Wood.

"There have been a lot of calls today, ever since Clemens didn't get the win (Sunday)," a ticket broker said Monday from Chicago. "But it's been a mixture, of both buying and selling."

Sitting down? The best pair of tickets go for $1,315 apiece, but they're sweet -- two rows behind the Yankees' dugout.

A single seat six rows from the field along the right-field foul line is fetching $625, a single in the second row of the second deck, behind home plate, is $600 and a bleacher seat is $250. Tickets to park in an adjacent lot are $40-$60. All of the above are rising.

Toronto at Montreal -- June 20, 21 and 22 (and Montreal at Toronto -- June 27, 28 and 29).

Baseball north of the border hasn't been this double-barreled exciting since 1993, when the Blue Jays won their second consecutive World Series title and the 94-68 Expos missed the NL East title by three games.

The following year, Montreal won 74 of 114 games and then ... the strike, which canceled the Series, which has been a bitter pill for native Expos fans.

Montreal (33-24) is 4 1/2 games behind division-leading Atlanta, while Toronto (32-26) trails the Yankees by two games and Boston by 1 1/2.

Atlanta at Seattle -- June 13, 14 and 15.

A World Series preview? The Braves (37-19) lead the NL East by 4 1/2 games. The Mariners (37-18) lead the AL West by five games.

Unfortunately for pitching fans in the Great Northwest, Maddux's spot in the rotation isn't due to come up in Seattle. Then again, nobody will hear the Mariners complaining.

Anaheim at Montreal at San Juan, Puerto Rico -- tonight, Wednesday and Thursday.

The defending world champs, like the Rangers who follow them, get to play an interleague foe on a Caribbean island. It easily qualifies as the most exotic series of the interleague season.

Not a bad way to get a free ticket home, too, for Bengie and Jose Molina, the Angels' Puerto Rican catching tandem.

By the way, Anaheim (27-27) is five games off its '02 pace.

Florida at Oakland -- tonight, Wednesday and Thursday.

Marlins manager Jack McKeon was the field boss of the Athletics from 1977-79.

And now, for the other side:

Detroit at San Diego -- tonight, Wednesday and Thursday.

Unquestionably, the loser of the series will be the worst team in the game.

The Tigers (14-40) are 16 1/2 back in the AL Central, and the Padres (16-41) trail San Francisco by 19 in the NL West.

Ticket prices should be about 28 percent (the rough winning percentage of both teams combined) of their usual value. Then again, kids should not be exposed to this way of playing the game.

The loser of the series should be relocated to Tijuana. Call them the Brass. Get Herb Alpert to be a co-owner. Yeah, we're onto something here.

In Toronto last Tuesday, pitchers Bartolo Colon of the White Sox and Roy Halladay of the Blue Jays both went the distance in a 5-1 victory for the Jays.

Colon threw 124 pitches, and Halladay tossed 109. That's the only time this season that both starters went the distance, reminiscent of another era, in the same game.

With the emergence of the closer, then the very high-priced closer (a la John Smoltz), managers have been extending the life of starters' arms.

Colon threw four complete games last season, Halladay two. Randy Johnson of Arizona led the Majors with eight.

Niekro established a Braves record for complete games in a season with 23 in '79, Ryan did so with the Angels (26) in '73-74, Blyleven with the Twins (25) in '73, Seaver with the Mets (21) in '71, Marichal with the Giants (30) in '68 and Palmer with the Orioles (25) in '75.

Notice those years. Of the teams that started playing before 1972, only Rick Langford set his team's complete-games mark in the 1980s, with 28 in '80.

Colorado began playing in 1993, and Pedro Astacio set the complete-game benchmark for the Rockies with seven in '99. Seven!

On a ranch somewhere in deepest Texas, Ryan is laughing.

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