Interleague matchups used to be so rare.
It used to just be simply teams playing each other from the same league.
But in 2023, they will become more commonplace, as teams will play every other team at least once, creating a more balanced schedule.
However, some interleague matchups don’t exactly feel natural, probably because they’re so rare and we almost never see them.
Former MLB pitcher Brandon McCarthy certainly feels this way, and he expressed his opinion about it on Twitter, saying that the matchup between the St. Louis Cardinals and Tampa Bay Rays is somewhat odd to him.
He even said that it would kind of be like the Detroit Tigers taking on the Utah Jazz of the NBA.
Interleague Oddities
Honestly, he’s not wrong.
The Cardinals and Rays, despite being two of the best teams in the league, don’t play each other very often.
But it’s a pretty funny take by McCarthy if we’re being completely honest here.
Where interleague play stands right now, teams in a certain division will play teams from another league’s division, and it rotates every three years, meaning a matchup between the Cardinals and Rays is incredibly rare.
So to some people, McCarthy being one of them, it’s almost like two teams from different sports playing each other.
It feels foreign in a way.
McCarthy is just preaching to the choir here with this hilarious take on interleague play.
Again, he isn’t wrong, especially since matchups between the AL East and NL Central were wiped off the schedule in 2020 in favor of regional matchups due to COVID.
It’s been almost five years since St. Louis and Tampa Bay linked up for a series.
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