Interleague play begins its 11th season today, and while the vanilla matchup of the Royals visiting the Rockies fuels critics, it’s not going away. It has become baseball’s guilty pleasure, averaging 32,842 fans per game, 12.4 percent higher than intraleague games. “When you consider reasons for doing it, the fans would have to be at the top,” Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said. Colorado struck interleague gold, landing the Yankees on its home schedule June 19-21.
ON THE ROCKS
Local boys do good
The Rockies carried the NL torch a year ago, going a league-best 11-4. This season’s schedule is more challenging. After opening against the lowly Royals, the Rockies play the Yankees at home and the Orioles, Red Sox and Blue Jays on the road.
HEY, BATTER, BATTER
Jeter a big beneficiary
Yankees SS Derek Jeter should thank commissioner Bud Selig for starting interleague play. Jeter has a baseball-best 227 hits against the NL. The Rangers’ Michael Young, left, is the active leader in interleague hitting (.347), with Jim Thome of the White Sox the leader in home runs (52.)
HIGHS AND LOWS
Yanks, A’s pad records
The Yankees, who set records for attendance, runs and hits when they played at Coors in 2002, have the best all-time interleague record at 103-71, with Oakland next at 103-75. The worst? The Pirates at 52-84.
