Best interleague matchups just miss

Interleague play, now in its 13th year, begins this weekend, and a moment of silence, please, for what might have been:

• San Francisco's Randy Johnson(notes), pitching Friday night in Seattle, could have been going for his 300th career victory against the Mariners, the team with which he first flourished as the Big Unit. Instead, because the Mets slapped him around for seven runs and 11 hits in four innings in his last start, the 45-year-old Johnson will be going for win No. 299.

• The New York Mets' Johan Santana(notes), pitching Friday night in Fenway Park, could have opposed Jon Lester(notes), the left-hander the Minnesota Twins coveted from the Red Sox before dealing Santana instead to New York. But Lester pitched Thursday night against the Blue Jays.

• Kansas City's Zack Greinke(notes), the game's best pitching story this spring, could have faced Albert Pujols(notes), the game's best hitter yet to be connected to performance-enhancing drugs, in St. Louis this weekend. But Greinke pitched Thursday afternoon against Cleveland and will be out of commission for the Royals against the Cardinals.

• San Diego's Jake Peavy(notes), assuming he hustled to the airport, could have guaranteed himself a standing ovation Friday night in Chicago's U.S. Cellular Field, pitching for the White Sox against the Pittsburgh Pirates. But because Peavy turned down a trade to the South Siders – he wants to remain in the NL, especially if prospective AL suitors are unwilling to exercise his $22 million contract option for 2013 – he will be in San Diego's Petco Park instead, facing Chicago's other team, the Cubs, in the night's only scheduled intraleague affair.

And what do we have instead of such succulent story lines? Well, there's the Battle of Ohio (Indians vs. Reds), the Freeway Series (Angels vs. Dodgers), the Beltway Brawl (Orioles vs. Nationals), the Lone Star showdown (Rangers vs. Astros), and the Citrus Series (Marlins vs. Rays). Those are the so-called natural rivalries that Major League Baseball trumpets when it boasts of an attendance bump of nearly 11 percent for interleague games last season over your regularly scheduled programming (an average of 35,587 for interleague games, 32,173 for in-league games).

As a marketing tool, interleague play is unarguably a success, sufficient to overcome such clunkers as the Rockies-Tigers and Diamondbacks-Athletics this weekend. But how many enduring moments do these games actually make? Ask yourself how many interleague moments have stuck in your personal memory bank, and you've got the answer.

Chicagoans may be the exception. Among other moments, Cubs and White Sox fans have the Michael Barrett(notes)-A.J. Pierzynski brawl in 2006, in which Cubs catcher Barrett cold-cocked Pierzynski after the White Sox catcher had run him at home plate. Barrett received a 10-game suspension; Pierzynski earned the eternal enmity of Cubs fans, not that he had to work at it.

And the rhetoric from both sides in Chicago frequently trumps the action on the field. White Sox GM Kenny Williams, reflecting the chip on the shoulder his side of the rivalry has toward the more favored Cubs, was almost poetic in throwing down the gauntlet last summer.

"You might as well build a border, a Great Wall of China, on Madison Street (Chicago's north-south dividing line), because we are so different,'' Williams said. "We might as well be in two different cities. The unfortunate thing for me is it's a shame that a certain segment of Chicago refused to enjoy a baseball championship brought to their city. The only thing I can say is, 'Happy anniversary.' ''

The last, of course, was a reference to the Cubs' century-long title drought. You'll have to wait until next month for the Cubs and White Sox to renew hostilities.

Can history be made in interleague play? Sure, though not the kind Jered Weaver(notes), who pitches for the Angels on Friday night in Dodger Stadium, would care to repeat.

Last summer, Weaver went six innings in what became a combined no-hitter for the Angels against the Dodgers, and took the loss, 1-0. The only run scored when Weaver bobbled a ground ball by Matt Kemp(notes), who stole second, continued to third when the throw from catcher Jeff Mathis(notes) sailed into center field, and scored on a sacrifice fly.

"Pretty magical,'' Dodgers manager Joe Torre said after just the fifth game since 1900 in which a team did not get a hit but won.

"I'm sure you guys are going to eat this up more than I am,'' Weaver groused to the crowd around his locker.

There's also the matter of whether the American League will continue to flex its clear superiority over the NL, which has manifested itself every which way: in World Series (AL teams have won 11 of the last 17), in All-Star games (it's 10 in a row for the AL, not counting the tie in the 2002 debacle), and in interleague play. The AL has won head-to-head play in five straight seasons, including last season's 149-103 wipeout in which 11 of the 14 AL teams boasted a winning record against their NL counterparts.

The Royals, for example, have had just one winning season in the last 13 but last season took four of six from the cross-state Cardinals, sweeping the proud 'Birds three straight in St. Louis. And five years ago, the Rangers set a club record by hitting eight home runs, including two grand slams, in an 18-3, Fourth of July demolition of the cross-state Astros.

The tilt in the balance of power, some believed, was a function of economics as much as talent; AL teams had five of the top six opening day payrolls in 2008. But this season, NL teams (Mets, Cubs, Phillies, Astros and Dodgers) occupy five of the top nine payroll slots, so the dollars can't easily be cited as the reason for AL dominance.

The best tests for AL teams this weekend may come for the Yankees, who open their home run haven this weekend to the Phillies, who lead the NL in longballs, and the Red Sox, whose darkest day as a franchise came at the hands of the Mets (Bill Buckner, c'mon down). The Mets happily remind the Red Sox of that '86 disaster at every opportunity – Mookie Wilson threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the teams' first interleague meeting in 1997.

There was pomp and circumstance the last time the Mets were here, in 2006 – the Red Sox showed a two-minute video tribute to former ace Pedro Martinez(notes) before the series' first game, and fans accorded him an emotional standing ovation when he took the hill the next night. They cheered even louder when he was knocked out in the third inning after allowing eight runs and seven hits in a 10-2 loss.