Interleague Imbalance

Interleague play has its moments—Curt Schilling outdueling Pedro Martinez at Fenway Park last Saturday, the White Sox visiting Wrigley this weekend—but it also threatens to wreak havoc on the playoff races when teams vying for a wild-card spot play radically different schedules. "If you don't play the same people, how do you know who's really the best team?" asks Giants manager Dusty Baker. "It's not fair to everybody."

To illustrate Baker's point, here's how the interleague calendar will affect the teams who at week's end were National League division leaders or were within six games of the wild card. (With a few exceptions, the NL West plays the AL East, the NL Central plays the AL West, and the NL East plays the AL Central.)

[This article contains a table. Please see hardcopy of magazine or PDF.]