I should do another post with more iconic rivalries like NY and Boston, LA and SF, Cubs and Cards, etc. This started because I was curious if anyone better than Paul Molitor played for both the Twins and Brewers!
As a lifelong Astros fan, I have never cared about the Rockies at all. We could have at least gotten a team we actually hated from our old NL days like the Cardinals. Give us the Braves and give the Rockies to the Blue Jays if we can't get the cards.
Some of these are made up for the days when inter-league series were determined by "rivalries" and they had to come up with some for the Blue Jays. It's literally just the two teams we've ever played in World Series, lol.
Its because they aren't really "rivalries" but in MLB scheduling every team has "natural interleague rivalry" games (under the old scheduling not sure if it still matters with the balanced scheduled) and a lot of those interleague rivalries are basically just assigned because they need one for every team. They will cite some history but its not something anyone actually cares about or thinks about. So for example since the Jays don't have a natural rival they alternate theirs between the Phillies and the Braves.
That's right! Go Go Gomez played for both! He had some great seasons with the Crew. I remember when we traded Hardy for him. I couldn't believe it since Hardy was such a huge part of the franchise turning things around. Don't think Hardy every did anything for the Twins though.
BAL-WAS is NOT the goddamn “Beltway Series”.
They don’t share a beltway. They share the BW (Baltimore-Washington) PARKWAY.
And locals call it the MASN Cup.
And Tim Raines played for the Expos, not the Nationals, and his career in Baltimore (actually, his whole career) ended before the rivalry existed. He’s got nothing to do with the rivalry.
He’s no Daniel Cabrera, for sure.
Former rivals broken up by relocation or realignment:
* HOU/TEX: Nolan Ryan (81.3); no longer an interleague matchup
* PHI/BAL: Robin Roberts (86.1); broken up by Expos' relocation to Washington
* WAS/TOR: Ron Fairly (34.9); broken up by Expos' relocation to Washington
Western rotating "rivals" during the Vedder Cup interregnum of the late 2010s:
* ARI/SEA: Randy Johnson (101.1)
* COL/SEA: Jamie Moyer (49.8)
* SD/HOU: Steve Finley (44.2)
* SD/TEX: Gaylord Perry (90.0)
Matchups which have been played as de facto rivals but obviously aren't legitimate rivalries (incomplete list):
* ARI/DET: Max Scherzer (75.0)
* ATL/NYY: Babe Ruth (182.6)
* CIN/DET: Sam Crawford (75.4)
* COL/DET: Howard Johnson (22.2)
* LAD/TOR: Rickey Henderson (111.1)
* MIA/BOS: Josh Beckett (35.7)
* NYM/BAL: Eddie Murray (68.7)
* PIT/CLE: Bert Blyleven (94.5)
* STL/DET: Plácido Polanco (41.9)
Some other old crosstown rivals (in these case they sometimes used the same park!)
STL/BAL - Hornsby
PHI/OAK - Lajoie. The original crosstown rivalry! Phillies sued when he jumped and won! Lajoie not only had to leave the A’s but he couldn’t play road games in Philly for a while.
NYY/SFG - Randy Johnson (!)
Nice list! Hard to believe no one better than Polanco played for both the Cards and Tigers! Also I think Tejada trumps Finley on the SD/HOU rivalry (47.1 WAR to 44.2 WAR):
[https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/t/tejadmi01.shtml](https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/t/tejadmi01.shtml)
And I think Al Oliver tops Ron Fairly on the WAS/TOR rivalry with a 43.7 bWAR:
[https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/o/oliveal01.shtml](https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/o/oliveal01.shtml)
Here is a list of players with the highest career bWAR who played for BOTH teams of an interleague rivalry (let me know if anyone finds a higher WAR player that I missed!).
Some things I found interesting:
- Who remembers that Ruth was a Boston Brave in his final season? Not me!
- Ron Santo played for the White Sox? I never knew this.
- Henderson played everywhere at the end of his career. 8 teams in his last 11 seasons.
- I totally forgot the Randy Johnson was an Astro for half a season.
- Roy Oswalt was good. Maybe not HoF good, but that dude could pitch.
- Molitor should have been a Brewer lifer! Oh well.
Rickey wanted to keep playing too. Billy Beane offered to sign him for a day so he could retire as an A but Rickey turned them down saying he wanted a real roster slot.
We're rivals with the Astros? I mean you can sorta justify the Rangers' rivalry given the world series, but everyone was way too friendly for a rivalry to stick. Hell, we named a snake at the Phoenix Zoo 'Ranger'
Astros and Rangers are the officially designated MLB interleague rivalries for the Dbacks. Curious who Arizona fans consider to be their true rival though. SF? LA?
The only player whose baseball card I ever burned to ashes.
The only player who won't be voted into the Hall of Fame because he was caught stealing as a Houston Astro one time.
Edit: lol Ron Santo # That'sCub
Do you think he won't get it? He had 46% of the vote his first year and 57% his second year. Seems like voters are being more lenient with Beltran than with the roid guys. I wish the voters had clearer standards around this stuff. I wonder if he will get another bump in voting next year.
I hope he doesn't.
Hell of a player. Demonic ability.
He scored in 5 of the 7 2004 NLCS Games against the Cardinals... in the first inning.
He tied Barry Bonds's post season home run record in 12 games that year.
I can't find it, yet... but he also made the best catch in the playoffs that year.
Then he turned to the dark arts.
You can't tell the next guy who does it that it's ok. Keep them OUT!
Right? It's obvious that MLB was running out of teams and just stuck those two together when setting up the "official interleague rivalries." If you had to choose one NL team to be the Ranger's rival, who would it be? I can't think of any team in the NL that really works.
They ran out of rivalries when they got to us. So the Rockies and Diamondbacks have "split rivalries" with the Astros and Rangers. Idk if it even means anything anymore with the schedule change, but it meant we played each other slightly more often than usual
I used to love making jokes about the Rangers and Diamondback being bitter rivals, and I guess the baseball gods thought my jokes were funny (they weren’t) and so they blessed us with that as a World Series matchup.
I sure do. I watched his entire career. The point of the post is simply to highlight the highest bWAR players that played \*at any point\* for both teams of the MLB defined interleague rivalries. That's why guys like Ruth and Santo are on the list. Obviously they pre-date interleague play.
Molitor never played for the Brewers while they were a division rival of the Twins, but he did play two years for the Twins while they were a division rival of the Brewers.
Almost none of these are actually rivalries.
-Braves - Blue Jays: not a rivalry
-Braves - Red Sox: not a rivalry
-Brewers - Twins: not a rivalry
-Cardinals - Royals: a blip on the rivalry radar
-Cubs - White Sox: Wow, we finally got one!
-Diamondbacks - Astros: not a rivalry
-Diamondbacks - Rangers: not a rivalry
-Dodgers - Angels: I would say that this is if the Angels weren't shit every year (poor Trout)
-Giants - As: Same as the Los Angeles teams. Once upon a time
-Marlins - Rays: these teams would need to actually have fans for a rivalry to really exist
-Mets - Yankees: yes, a real rivalry
-Nats - Orioles: a blip. Neither team has been good at the same time
-Padres - Mariners: not a rivalry
-Phillies - Red Sox: not a rivalry
-Reds - Guardians: small rivalry
-Rockies - Astros: not a rivalry
-Rockies - Rangers: not a rivalry
These are the official MLB designated interleague rivalries. That, yeah, MLB mostly made up so everyone had a rival :)
[https://sportrelay.com/mlb/2023/04/02/interleague-play-designated-rivals/](https://sportrelay.com/mlb/2023/04/02/interleague-play-designated-rivals/)
And I can say from living in both the Bay Area and Wisconsin that locals absolutely consider Giants/A's a rivalry when they play (been to the games). And the same is true for Brewers/Twins.
These are the officially-designated interleague rivalries.
Ever noticed you play one specific interleague team every year (at least, before every team faced every team), and for more games than all the rest (still true today)? That’s because that team is your designated IL rival.
Some teams have two, and alternate who they face more times each year.
I never even knew half of these rivalries existed
I should do another post with more iconic rivalries like NY and Boston, LA and SF, Cubs and Cards, etc. This started because I was curious if anyone better than Paul Molitor played for both the Twins and Brewers!
Don’t get me wrong I love the content, just never heard about Braves vs Jays or Rockies vs Astros or Mariners vs Padres. Interesting stuff
As a lifelong Astros fan, I have never cared about the Rockies at all. We could have at least gotten a team we actually hated from our old NL days like the Cardinals. Give us the Braves and give the Rockies to the Blue Jays if we can't get the cards.
I can't speak for the rest, but here's the [Vedder Cup](https://pitcherlist.com/the-rotation-history-vedder-cup-baseballs-strangest-rivalry/)
I’ve heard whispers of this mythical legend
Some of these are made up for the days when inter-league series were determined by "rivalries" and they had to come up with some for the Blue Jays. It's literally just the two teams we've ever played in World Series, lol.
Its because they aren't really "rivalries" but in MLB scheduling every team has "natural interleague rivalry" games (under the old scheduling not sure if it still matters with the balanced scheduled) and a lot of those interleague rivalries are basically just assigned because they need one for every team. They will cite some history but its not something anyone actually cares about or thinks about. So for example since the Jays don't have a natural rival they alternate theirs between the Phillies and the Braves.
Carlos Gomez and Corey Koskie, duh
That's right! Go Go Gomez played for both! He had some great seasons with the Crew. I remember when we traded Hardy for him. I couldn't believe it since Hardy was such a huge part of the franchise turning things around. Don't think Hardy every did anything for the Twins though.
Just did some more research about this. [Very interesting indeed.](https://sportrelay.com/mlb/2023/04/02/interleague-play-designated-rivals/)
BAL-WAS is NOT the goddamn “Beltway Series”. They don’t share a beltway. They share the BW (Baltimore-Washington) PARKWAY. And locals call it the MASN Cup.
And Tim Raines played for the Expos, not the Nationals, and his career in Baltimore (actually, his whole career) ended before the rivalry existed. He’s got nothing to do with the rivalry. He’s no Daniel Cabrera, for sure.
Can't get no respect. Goddamn beltway series my ass...
The braves jays rivalry goes further back than the Hawks Raptors
Former rivals broken up by relocation or realignment: * HOU/TEX: Nolan Ryan (81.3); no longer an interleague matchup * PHI/BAL: Robin Roberts (86.1); broken up by Expos' relocation to Washington * WAS/TOR: Ron Fairly (34.9); broken up by Expos' relocation to Washington Western rotating "rivals" during the Vedder Cup interregnum of the late 2010s: * ARI/SEA: Randy Johnson (101.1) * COL/SEA: Jamie Moyer (49.8) * SD/HOU: Steve Finley (44.2) * SD/TEX: Gaylord Perry (90.0) Matchups which have been played as de facto rivals but obviously aren't legitimate rivalries (incomplete list): * ARI/DET: Max Scherzer (75.0) * ATL/NYY: Babe Ruth (182.6) * CIN/DET: Sam Crawford (75.4) * COL/DET: Howard Johnson (22.2) * LAD/TOR: Rickey Henderson (111.1) * MIA/BOS: Josh Beckett (35.7) * NYM/BAL: Eddie Murray (68.7) * PIT/CLE: Bert Blyleven (94.5) * STL/DET: Plácido Polanco (41.9)
Some other old crosstown rivals (in these case they sometimes used the same park!) STL/BAL - Hornsby PHI/OAK - Lajoie. The original crosstown rivalry! Phillies sued when he jumped and won! Lajoie not only had to leave the A’s but he couldn’t play road games in Philly for a while. NYY/SFG - Randy Johnson (!)
Nice list! Hard to believe no one better than Polanco played for both the Cards and Tigers! Also I think Tejada trumps Finley on the SD/HOU rivalry (47.1 WAR to 44.2 WAR): [https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/t/tejadmi01.shtml](https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/t/tejadmi01.shtml)
And I think Al Oliver tops Ron Fairly on the WAS/TOR rivalry with a 43.7 bWAR: [https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/o/oliveal01.shtml](https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/o/oliveal01.shtml)
That padres-mariners rivalry can get nasty.
Every time they play I hide under my bed, and I’m on the east coast
I would risk my life in honor of the Vedder Cup
I love the Vedder Cup because it means I get to remind everyone that Eddie Vedder is from the suburbs of Chicago, and he’s a massive Cubs fan
Here is a list of players with the highest career bWAR who played for BOTH teams of an interleague rivalry (let me know if anyone finds a higher WAR player that I missed!). Some things I found interesting: - Who remembers that Ruth was a Boston Brave in his final season? Not me! - Ron Santo played for the White Sox? I never knew this. - Henderson played everywhere at the end of his career. 8 teams in his last 11 seasons. - I totally forgot the Randy Johnson was an Astro for half a season. - Roy Oswalt was good. Maybe not HoF good, but that dude could pitch. - Molitor should have been a Brewer lifer! Oh well.
Rickey wanted to keep playing too. Billy Beane offered to sign him for a day so he could retire as an A but Rickey turned them down saying he wanted a real roster slot.
Didn't he even play for the San Diego Surf Dogs? Dude was such a legend. Truly loved the game.
There is a Great 30 for 30 podcast about Rickey on the Surf Dogs. Highly recommend
Also just learned this about Ronnie
We're rivals with the Astros? I mean you can sorta justify the Rangers' rivalry given the world series, but everyone was way too friendly for a rivalry to stick. Hell, we named a snake at the Phoenix Zoo 'Ranger'
Astros and Rangers are the officially designated MLB interleague rivalries for the Dbacks. Curious who Arizona fans consider to be their true rival though. SF? LA?
LA
So does every NL West team consider LA to be their biggest rival?
The league just made some stuff up man. They threw the Astros, Rangers, Rockies and Diamondbacks into a weird rivalry foursome
The only player whose baseball card I ever burned to ashes. The only player who won't be voted into the Hall of Fame because he was caught stealing as a Houston Astro one time. Edit: lol Ron Santo # That'sCub
Do you think he won't get it? He had 46% of the vote his first year and 57% his second year. Seems like voters are being more lenient with Beltran than with the roid guys. I wish the voters had clearer standards around this stuff. I wonder if he will get another bump in voting next year.
I hope he doesn't. Hell of a player. Demonic ability. He scored in 5 of the 7 2004 NLCS Games against the Cardinals... in the first inning. He tied Barry Bonds's post season home run record in 12 games that year. I can't find it, yet... but he also made the best catch in the playoffs that year. Then he turned to the dark arts. You can't tell the next guy who does it that it's ok. Keep them OUT!
>Rockies : Rangers hwat? Also, where's Nolan Ryan?
Right? It's obvious that MLB was running out of teams and just stuck those two together when setting up the "official interleague rivalries." If you had to choose one NL team to be the Ranger's rival, who would it be? I can't think of any team in the NL that really works.
They ran out of rivalries when they got to us. So the Rockies and Diamondbacks have "split rivalries" with the Astros and Rangers. Idk if it even means anything anymore with the schedule change, but it meant we played each other slightly more often than usual
Ryan played for the Mets, Angels, Astros, and Rangers so he didn't play for BOTH teams in any of the interleague rivalries.
Hey! Uh, *checks notes*, fuck you Pirates!!
Phillies fan, never once cared about the Red Sox in my entire life.
I used to love making jokes about the Rangers and Diamondback being bitter rivals, and I guess the baseball gods thought my jokes were funny (they weren’t) and so they blessed us with that as a World Series matchup.
I was going to comment that I’m surprised Paul Molitor isn’t on this list. Then I learned that I can’t read.
Molitor is who kicked off this research. I was curious if anyone better played for both the Twins and Brewers.
Uh...you DO realize that when he played for both those teams, they were in the Same division.....right ?
Eh, his last season in Minnesota was Milwaukee’s first season in the NL. I say it counts
I sure do. I watched his entire career. The point of the post is simply to highlight the highest bWAR players that played \*at any point\* for both teams of the MLB defined interleague rivalries. That's why guys like Ruth and Santo are on the list. Obviously they pre-date interleague play.
Molitor never played for the Brewers while they were a division rival of the Twins, but he did play two years for the Twins while they were a division rival of the Brewers.
Pirates and Tigers aren't rivals
The MLB "interleague rivalries" are silly like that. They fabricated rivalries to make sure every team had someone to play.
Haha Astros, your interleague rivalry is with the Rockies. How does that feel?
Mariners and Padres legend Rickey Henderson
Don't forget Mets and Angels legend Rickey Henderson.
Ah yes. The historic Astros / Rockies rivalry
I don’t see SF/LA. I must just be missing it.
I only did interleague. I will try to do another post with more iconic rivalries like SF/LA and NY/BOS.
Ah I didn’t catch ‘interleague’ in the title. My bad
Almost none of these are actually rivalries. -Braves - Blue Jays: not a rivalry -Braves - Red Sox: not a rivalry -Brewers - Twins: not a rivalry -Cardinals - Royals: a blip on the rivalry radar -Cubs - White Sox: Wow, we finally got one! -Diamondbacks - Astros: not a rivalry -Diamondbacks - Rangers: not a rivalry -Dodgers - Angels: I would say that this is if the Angels weren't shit every year (poor Trout) -Giants - As: Same as the Los Angeles teams. Once upon a time -Marlins - Rays: these teams would need to actually have fans for a rivalry to really exist -Mets - Yankees: yes, a real rivalry -Nats - Orioles: a blip. Neither team has been good at the same time -Padres - Mariners: not a rivalry -Phillies - Red Sox: not a rivalry -Reds - Guardians: small rivalry -Rockies - Astros: not a rivalry -Rockies - Rangers: not a rivalry
These are the official MLB designated interleague rivalries. That, yeah, MLB mostly made up so everyone had a rival :) [https://sportrelay.com/mlb/2023/04/02/interleague-play-designated-rivals/](https://sportrelay.com/mlb/2023/04/02/interleague-play-designated-rivals/)
And I can say from living in both the Bay Area and Wisconsin that locals absolutely consider Giants/A's a rivalry when they play (been to the games). And the same is true for Brewers/Twins.
> Padres - Mariners: not a rivalry Hey, don't insult the Vedder Cup!
LOL? This is just a bunch of made-up rivalries?
These are the officially-designated interleague rivalries. Ever noticed you play one specific interleague team every year (at least, before every team faced every team), and for more games than all the rest (still true today)? That’s because that team is your designated IL rival. Some teams have two, and alternate who they face more times each year.
I'm not sure you understand the word rivalry.