In a little over a week, the Phillies will begin the marathon that is the regular season. It lasts from the beginning of April until the end of September. That's a long time, and a lot can happen between now and then. There will be winning streaks and losing streaks, players will come and go. The weather at night games will go from chilly to balmy to hot, and eventually, back to chilly again.
But one thing that is guaranteed not to change is the schedule each team has before them. For many years, every team in baseball had the same exact schedule as all the other teams. Then, Bud Selig decided it might be fun to explore some cross-state "rivalries" through interleague play.
It was a novelty at first, and it was sort of fun the first few years. But now, ten years later, the fad has lost its allure, similar to braided belts for men. As a matter of fact, just as familiarity breeds contempt, we've begun to realize how the asymmetric nature of interleague scheduling creates advantages and disadvantages for various teams.
For instance, the Phillies play the Blue Jays, Royals, Tigers, White Sox and Indians, each for three games, during interleague play. The Mets on the other hand, will face the Yankees (two three-game series), Twins, Tigers, and Athletics. The 2006 winning percentage for the Phillies' 2007 interleague opponents is .509, while the Mets opponents are .590.
So no matter what happens to the Phillies between April and September, no matter who gets hurt or who goes in a slump, remember, there's one thing we can hang our tattered red caps on: the unbalanced schedule.
In a division race as tight as the NL East is looking to be from where we stand in late-March, the favorable schedule might just make the difference for the Phils.
... More on the unbalanced nature of interleague play.
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