Ineffective

For the past three days, I've been a reluctant participant in the American League-versus-National League debate. Admittedly, this comes from frustration of the hearing the same dead horse being beaten since the start of the decade. It also comes from reading, watching and listening to countless numbers of New York Yankees fans discounting the defending champion Philadelphia Phillies chances of playing a tough World Series (and this Scribe believes the Phillies will win it). Yankee fans are quick to dismiss the Phillies because they play in the NL, an apparently inferior league to the one perceived as stacked and full of vast resources to build championship contenders.

After reading one of today’s posts in the New York Times “Bats” blog, “AL vs. AAAA?”, I’ve had enough. As the Amtrak Series is upon us (Turnpike Series sounds kind of boring), the continued debate of which league is better continues to rage on with two grossly overrated and ineffective measures; interleague play and the All-Star Game that shouldn't ever count.

While the interleague formula has been modified over the years, it is a good look at how the leagues are early in the season when no trades have been made to alter the landscape of playoff contention. If the AL and NL squared off in the second half of the season after the trading deadline and a change in the weather, there could be a completely different story. Even though Major League Baseball and associated media take a total of wins and losses for all teams during interleague play, it’s still an inconclusive measure of conference superiority because 15-18 games out of 162 tells a small part of the story for any team throughout a long season.

As for referring to the All-Star Game… well, it’s time that this aspect of the argument needs to be taken to the woodshed. Truthfully, though they are differing leagues and sports, you would never hear the Pro Bowl, the NBA, or even the NHL and MLS All-Star Games as litmus tests of opposite conferences.

When the National Football Conference won fifteen of 16 Super Bowls from 1981-1996, they had a slim 9-7 margin in the all-star contest over the American counterparts. Even though the game was the week after the Super Bowl, it’s still a collection of the highest-regarded players in the league. Even as the AFC took the mantle as the better conference since 1997, they didn’t assert absolute dominance in either the Super Bowl or Pro Bowl. The AFC has nine of the last twelve Super Bowl titles and eight of the last twelve Pro Bowl wins; yet this era has featured the closest Super Bowls in league history as a handful of plays could have easily kept the scales on the NFC’s side for a nearly three-decade stretch.

Since the turn of the century, the Western Conference has long been recognized as the superior side of the NBA and for good reason with the dominance of the Los Angeles Lakers and San Antonio Spurs. It’s a lot easier to come to this conclusion considering that unlike baseball and the NFL, every team in the league plays each other at least twice in an 82-game season. Yet, that’s all fans and media members need to make this observation. Referring to the All-Star Game – one in which players understand that it’s an exhibition, not something to be taken seriously by any means – would be unwise as outside of the East’s five-game win streak from 1980-1984, neither conference has won more than three straight in the 49 year history of the contest.

Both the NHL and MLS have changed their formats several times over the years; the sheer consideration of the midseason exhibition as a measure of conference superiority would be even more absurd. Though the NHL has returned to the traditional East-vs.-West format, there are no ASGs during Olympic years as will be the case in 2010 when the league takes a break for the Vancouver Games. They had an ill-received North America-versus-World format from 1998-2002 that blended players of both conferences based on nationality as opposed to conference allegiances. Major League Soccer just puts together the best players in the entire league to play an English Premier League team as its All-Star Game.

The lazy use of the All-Star Game and interleague play is all the more reason why people need to invest themselves in sports packages (even if it’s just hitting up the neighborhood sports bar a couple of times during the week to see out-of-market games). You get to see a bit more than the capsules of highlights and national broadcasts, but truly watch how the other half lives, sort of speak.

Sure, the World Series is upon us and outside of New York and Philadelphia, most non-Yankees and Phillies fans may not be so engaged in watching the series and are content to counting down to spring training. Regardless of how you feel about either team or the baseball postseason as a whole, let us understand that brand name teams and a few games against non-traditional opponents do not a superior conference make.

Besides, the Washington Nationals took two out of three at Yankee Stadium back in June. Guess who's still playing?

Johan!

Unless owner Carl Pohlad gets President Bush's economic stimulus check early and re-signs him in the next three days, the Minnesota Twins are trading Johan Santana to the New York Mets for four prospects, including outfielder Carlos Gomez.

Of course, Santana has to agree thanks to his no-trade clause.

And then there's that six-year, $150 million deal for his services in the long run.

In the spirit of the Presidential campaigns, "I'm Fred Wilpon (Mets owner) and I approved of this message."

Santana, who is by most accounts the best pitcher in baseball, comes to the National League after eight seasons going against the most formidable lineups in the American League. Already, prognosticators and Mets fans have given him 20 wins, an earned run average under two, the NL Cy Young, NL MVP, World Series MVP and grand marshall in the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade. Which begs the question, better yet, two:

1. Will he have the same success in Queens against the National League East as he did in his against the American League Central? Considering that at least a third of his starts will come against his new division foes, he faces two of the league's best offenses in Philadelphia and Atlanta. After dealing with the White Sox and Tigers in their resurgences over the past four years, he has experience with the game's most potent hitters. However, new parks and unfamiliar faces will make his first go-round within the division very intriguing.
   
2. Considering that the NL is the "inferior" league, will he have similar success as Roger Clemens found in Houston (PEDs or not)? While AL teams have acquired bats via trade and free agency over the past seven years, NL teams have brought up their own through the farm. While not every offense is as anemic as Arizona's, the NL West is no longer a hitless division. The Central boasts the Milwaukee Brewers and the Chicago Cubs, teams with hitters such as Prince Fielder, Derrick Lee and Alfonso Soriano.

Thoughts? Comments? Questions? It's all on you.

Say What?!?!: Yeah, I know. Less baseball, more football. In all honesty, this is bigger than anything until Sunday. I'm not going to analyze Ryan Seacrest's performance on the red carpet... and why the heck is there a red carpet show for Super Bowl XLII? Or Ryan Seacrest?