After 15 years, interleague play has lost most of the buzz that accompanied its entry into the regular season in 1997.
There's none of the strangeness that accompanied those early games and familiarity has bred some contempt for the entire endeavor. Most of the grumbling is just for the sake of grumbling, but some, particularly complaints about the havoc the unbalanced schedules can unleash on playoff races, is right on the spot.
Even the annual meetings between the Mets and Yankees have a little less juice, which still leaves their matchups with a lot more appeal than games between the Mets and Angels. Every now and then, though, there's a little gift from the scheduling office to make the whole enchilada worthwhile.
This weekend's series between the Yankees and Cubs at Wrigley Field was just such an enchilada. Seeing the Yankees amid the bricks and the ivy of the north side stadium was much better than another visit to Toronto or Cleveland, especially because the crowd's mix of the usual Cubs fans and Yankee fans seeing the rare visit made for a much headier atmosphere than you normally get in these days of luxury boxes and Legends suites.
The baseball could have been better, although we learned there's something about Wrigley that makes it a bit easier to swallow sloppiness. We also learned that there's something about taking two of the three games that helps it go down without a fight.
Before the Yankees kick things off in Cincinnati -- alas, they can't all be the Friendly Confines -- let's look back at the weekend that was.
1. According to Alex Rodriguez, an ESPN New York report that he has been dealing with a shoulder strain that requires treatment is totally without merit. He just has a shoulder issue that, for the last 10 days, requires treatment.
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Perhaps he's trying to get Rene Magritte to paint his next centaur portrait? Whatever the issue, A-Rod was 5-for-12 over the weekend so everything seems to be okay for the time being.
2. The Yankee bullpen isn't missing Joba Chamberlain all that much. The Yankees played seven games in seven days last week and their relievers allowed exactly one run during that span.
Mariano Rivera gave up that run when he allowed a homer on Saturday afternoon so the parts of the bullpen that were worrisome actually went through the week without so much as a scratch. Keep that up and Brian Cashman might actually have a hair left come the end of the season.
3. Eduardo Nunez is exactly what Derek Jeter needed to get people to stop talking about his defense. Nunez made another error Saturday, he's made eight already this season, and his bat, which has more pop than Jeter's, has only added up to a 691 OPS.
4. Brett Gardner finally figured out an effective way to leadoff Sunday when he blasted a homer in his first at-bat. Gardner's on-base skills and great speed do him no good because he has the baserunning instincts of Jorge Posada, which led to his 10th caught stealing of the season on Saturday.
5. Russell Martin is a pretty tough character. Saturday found him pulling off a sturdy block of home plate to keep the Yankees in front while Sunday saw him take a bat to the noggin that was lovingly tended to by Nick Swisher.
6. If your Father's Day present was tickets to watch the Brooklyn Cyclones and Staten Island Yankees, you got a treat when Phil Hughes made his first rehab start for the mini-Yanks. The big club got a treat as well as Hughes's fastball sat in the low 90's and hit 95 in an encouraging sign for his chances of helping the team down the road.
Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City. You can follow him on Twitter and he is also a contributor to Pro Football Talk.
