Why national league playing American league?

Answer 1

The American League came to be in 1900. It was formed by joining together several minor league teams (and not by splitting off from the National League).

In 1900, Ban Johnson (president of the Western League, the strongest of the minor leagues) and Charles Comiskey (who owned the Chicago White Sox franchise) wanted an open competition with the National League. So, they created the American League.

The American League joined the majors in 1901, and the Chicago White Sox won the very first American League pennant. Winning the Pennant in either league was the pinnacle of success as the two leagues did not compete against each other in the World Series until 1903 when each league sent one team - the one that won their respective Pennant - to the World Series. That practice continues until today (with the exception of two years - 1904 and 1994.

Why the leagues are named so similarly "American" and "National" remains a mystery; "American League" may be a throwback to the previous NL competitor, American Association. The American league is Yankees, Rangers. The Nationals league is Phillies, Mets, Braves, Giants, Nationals, Redsox, Cardinals and Pirates.

Answer 2

So "interleague play" isn't daily and every team can play a game. Otherwise, there would either be one team from each league that doesn't play or an odd number of interleague games would occur.

There are 30 teams. If the two leagues were equal, they would each have an odd number of teams. Then you would have to have at least one interleague series going on at any given time, which would make scheduling a nightmare.

Correction

The above s are good in theory, however, the NL has 16 teams and the AL teams have 14 teams because in 1998 the Milwaukee Brewers agreed to move from the AL Central to the NL Central so each team league wouldn't have 15 teams, causing 1 team to have to be idle every day, extending out the season and making travel and scheduling much more difficult. Before 1998 which is when the addition of the Arizona Diamondbacks to the NL and Tampa Bay Rays to the AL took place, each league had 14 teams, and this wasnt a problem. The move of the Brewers had nothing to do with "interleague play", as "interleague play started in 1997 and the change took place in 1998.

Actually the change had everything to do with interleague play. With 15 teams in each league, there would have had to have been at least one interleague series going on at all times. MLB didn't want that. They only wanted interleague to happen during the middle of the season. The fact that interleague play had already started is irrelevant.

Answer 3

Major League Baseball started what they call "Interleague Play" back in 1997 in order to draw a little more interest for games. For instance, now the New York Yankees and New York Mets can play every year instead of only during Spring Training or the World Series.