Friday, May 20, 2011

Interleague Play

Among other things, I've been busy moving over the past month. Interleague play seems like an appropriate occasion to return to blogging.

I have mostly been watching Marlins games. Occasionally, by the time I retire to the sofa, the Western Division games are just beginning. Either way, I tend to favor watching NL games. During Interleague games, the AL announcers love to tell us about the National League brand of baseball. They do complicated double switches such as putting the pitcher in to bat third and bringing in a reserve outfielder to bat 9th. Wheels are turning in the dugouts. In reality, the majority of managers making moves like this are AL managers playing in NL ballparks. In a regular NL game, a real double-switch involves pinch-hitting a light-hitting middle infielder for the pitcher and replacing the #8 hitting second baseman with the new pitcher. That's it. Meanwhile, the pitchers usually hit well enough that I don't even notice that it's the pitcher hitting.