MLB: 2011 Marks the End of Baseball's Interleague Era

Ever since I've been a baseball fan, the league has relatively stayed the same. I was born in 1992, but have no recollection of a league without the Miami (FL) Marlins, Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays, Colorado Rockies or Arizona Diamondbacks. The Yankees could win nearly every year and always seemed to succeed, and baseballs were flying out of Busch Stadium like they were being given away. But for the first time in my lifetime, baseball will drastically change.

Next season, the Houston Astros will jump from the National League Central to the American League West. There will be 15 teams in each league, meaning there will be an interleague series at every point in the season. Therefore, this past Sunday was the end of the Interleague Era.

The Interleague Era saw a rise in the viewership of the MLB. Fans were now able to see teams that they had never had seen play in their own ballpark. Ball clubs learned the experience of playing with a DH or forcing the pitcher to bat, and managers were provided with an early season look at the team they could be facing in the World Series.

For three weeks out of the season, teams got to experience the kind of baseball that they hadn't played since high school. They got to travel to cities that they had never been to before. Rivalries were made, and they became ever more cutthroat because those one or two series were the only bragging rights a fan had for the entire season.

Now, all of that is over.

Interleague play will become mundane. Fans will no longer look forward to those weeks in June where everyone is playing someone from a different league, seeing matchups that could only be possible on the world's largest stage.  

Now the difference between making the playoffs and watching from home could be that one game you lost back in May because some rookie had to play DH. It could be playing the division leader of the AL East or the basement dweller of the NL West. The difference could be the addition or subtraction of divisional games.

The uncertainty of what could come is exciting for the fans and could draw a new fanbase for the younger generation. Baseball purists may not like the move, but for now, all we can do is watch the door close on the Interleague Era and see what the new plan has to offer.