With the initiation of Interleague Play, Major League Baseball created a way for fans to enjoy the best of all of the players in the league. This is so because fans could now watch the opposite league's teams play their favorite, which before was not possible apart from the World Series.In my opinion, the biggest positive was allowing for crosstown rivals to play each other.
From the Kansas City Royals and St. Louis Cardinals to the Los Angeles Dodgers and Angels to the New York Mets and Yankees, baseball created a mini-playoff series in the regular season where geographical supremacy was the goal and hearing neighbors taunt you for losing was the punishment.
While some allege that the hype surrounding these series has dampened (almost to the point of insignificance), I see it differently.
Take for instance the Yankees and Mets. These two teams are on opposite sides of the spectrum: the Yanks are exceeding expectations and lead the AL East whereas the Mets have actually performed very poorly and are considered to be eliminated from playoff-contention already.
Generally, games that feature two top-tier teams are filled with hype and often sell out. With the Mets almost being unwatchable, following the thought process of opponents of Interleague Play, one would think that the ballpark would be no more full then any other regular-season series.
Instead, the Mets, whose attendance has been dreadfully low this season, have seen a significant increase during the first two games of the series. The first game had 32,911 people, which is above the average attendance per game (26,000) this season. The second has been sold out (42, 000) for the first time and most likely the last time this season.
While one explanation for the sell out could be that phenom Matt Harvey is pitching. However, prior to this game, he has not drawn more than 26,000 fans.
I think anytime something new is introduced, it's demand is very high in the beginning and as its novelty fades away, so does its popularity. However, to say that it is not significant to the game of baseball or not more intriguing then any commonplace series is completely wrong.
