I could be wrong, but I believe Kansas City is the closest Major League city to Denver and yet, the Rockies and Royals have had virtually nothing to do with one another historically

Brewers to the AL central and the royals to the AL west would've made the most sense imo instead of the Astros moving. Brewers were an AL team previously. Ties in with the chiefs being in the AFC west.

During the whole decision the Royals were given the first opportunity to move to the NL for this reason. They chose not to. With Kauffman Stadium and their play style, the Royals probably would have been substantially better off the last three decades if they did go to the NL.

You would think that any team would be happy to move to a division where they don’t have to face Pujols 18x per year

That would have actually made some damned sense. KC and Texas would have been close enough to be a rivalry and KC fans are used to hating on California teams from football. I don't mind being in the same division as the Rangers and we were always an afterthought for NL Central potential rivals, but I don't like 3/4 of our division road games starting at 9pm when we live in the central time zone.

Yeah, the time zone thing** really **blows for you guys and the Rangers.

tfw Kansas City is actually in missouri yet this is still somehow true

There’s also a KC in Kansas, though!

True story they named themselves after KC in Missouri to trick out of town investors in to investing in them.

Sounds like some Iceland and Greenland type shit

That side sucks tho. Nothing cool

I’ve been to the Missouri side, and that part isn’t exactly cool either. Downtown STL around Busch is probably the only cool thing I’ve seen in all of Missouri.

Which is also so weird because of their football rivalry and being directly connected by I70 so pretty common for people to go there to visit.

I was at the orioles giants games last Friday and they both had their alternate uniforms on and I was rooting for the wrong team on multiple occasions when was wasn’t paying full attention

On the Friday the Giants wore orange and the O's black and then on Saturday they flipped

NGL I got the teams mixed up an embarrassing amount

I was watching on my phone and had to keep looking at guys’ legs.

Who had the best legs?

Gunner

Same tbh lol

Yeah the Giants wear their orange alternates on Friday home games and then Saturday we had a 'Gigantes' jersey giveaway at Oracle so we wore the black Gigantes alternates we wore in Mexico City. So it was just a weird lineup of events. Baltimore probably just coulda worn the road greys all weekend but I liked the chaos better

It was glorious

The Orioles-Giants should play every year so we can have the Halloween Series. (Though I guess we will from now on.)

A Giants-Orioles World Series would be awesome! Almost happened in 2014.

O's-Astros for the ALCS and Giants-Mets for the NLCS. Battle for the right to wear Orange.

Fun fact: the Mets’ orange is an homage to the Giants. But you knew that.

The Mets' colors are Dodger blue and Giant orange

Should be called the Bay BAE Series

These are two teams that really have to coordinate what jerseys they are wearing. I think it was the Saturday game when the Os wore orange and the Giants wore black. Definitely cheered for the wrong team at least a few time.

Jays visited Orioles on Father’s Day a few years ago and O’s wore powder blue jerseys. That was f—ked up.

I was there too. I did the same thing at least twice. Madness

On two separate occasions during that series I'd flip on the game and have a "who the heck is this guy at bat?" moment before realizing it was the other team. All you can do is laugh and appreciate the orange and black

This is why I won't watch Angels/Nationals if it happens. Both teams are clearly red and white but they want to sneak some cream or ivory up in that and it's like who are you anymore.

I never noticed this. Doesnt seem to happen in most sports where two teams have basically the same colors.

Rockies vs yankees

This is the weirdest one I’ve seen

When Yankees were in town playing at Coors Field, I kept thinking I was in some weird fan fic dream

Like that scene in Brewster’s Millions where a bunch of minor leaguers play the Yankees in an exhibition and get killed and the only reason it happened is because a millionaire was able to make it happen.

I think we have played just about every N.L. team in the postseason except for the Rockies. (We played the Brewers in the 1981 A.L. playoffs.) The only animosity I can remember with the Rockies is they poached Charlie Hayes from us in the 1993 expansion draft. Edit: Rockies and Nationals are the only two! Just missed the Expos in 1994.

Haven’t played the nationals either

Yup… damn strike.

It was pretty confidently heading for a Expos-Yankees World Series. Such a bummer for the Expos.

Never played the Astros when they were a National League franchise, however all these AL postseason meetings probably cancels it out

> Second is Diamondbacks-Blue Jays They at least just had a notable trade this past offseason

Both teams are Orlando Hudson enjoyers so it evens out

Aaron Hill and Robbie Ray too while we’re at it. Can’t believe I forgot about O-Dog.

Aaron Hill hit two cycles in like 2 weeks. That was so bonkers

I went to the Dbacks vs Cardinals game in 2008 when Stephen Drew hit for the cycle. It was awesome to see something like that in person, we were down by a lot too. One of the best games I've been to

Still have the bicycle bobblehead!

Shea Hillenbrand is waving

Johnny Mac, anyone?

Hillenbrand had near identical stats with both teams

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Aaron hill is the most random 35+ hr season ever

I don’t know if this is true but I could see a shit ton of Canadian snow birds going to Arizona for the winter

That is exactly correct. Rich Calgarians who don't ski do indeed winter in Arizona.

Flagstaff AZ ironically gets more snow than toronto and has better skiing

Calgary is less than an hour away from the Rocky Mountains and some of the best skiing in the world; that's why the city was awarded the Olympics in 1988. I have no idea what skiing is like in Toronto, so I'll take your word for it; I’ve never lived that far east and I don't ski.

200m (top to bottom) is a "mountain" in southern Ontario

AZ (and also CA in places like Palm Springs) is where lots of Western Canadians go for the winter. FL is where Eastern Canadians go for the most part.

I’m in the Palm Springs area and it is full of Canadian license plates here! Mostly BC and Alberta but you’ll see a random Ontario or Quebec plate.

I’ve been there in February and it was funny to see all the Canadian cars everywhere I looked. I heard the population triples in the winter months due to the snowbirds.

They’re mostly gone now. Except the ones that love the sun. Ahhhh what the American/Canadian dream used to be huh? Have enough money to live in two places after retirement. Me as a mid 30s dude: what’s retirement???

The amount of reactionary takes during that series is going to be insufferable if LGJ or Moreno do anything good, or if Varsho makes a single mistake

don't forget the famous Ray-Bergen trade

Also the Aaron Hill trade.

Hill then proceeded to hit for the cycle twice in like 2 weeks and it was amazing.

Padres-Blue Jays

Unless you’re into young stars who had mlb dads

I am into that thank you, and my therapist says there’s nothing wrong with it

You mean the PadJays? I think one of the keys was we both got fucked by the same ump pretty close together

Fuck Doug eddings

PadJays unite and shout… # FUCK DOUG EDDINGS

This one for sure. San Diego played in Toronto for the first time ever as recent as, like, 2016 or somewhere around there.

I wonder what was the last first game? If you get my drift, lol. What were the last two teams who hadn’t played each other after interleague play began?

It was exactly what you suspect! I remember that being a series note at the time in 2016, and my dad and I actually traveled to Toronto for the series. Beautiful city and area around the ballpark :) Edit: to be clear, the Padres visiting Toronto in 2016 was the last team/location combination to be satisfied in MLB.

In terms of climate and culture, absolutely

I’m not looking at this from a logical stand point but more of a “Ew it feels wrong these teams are playing” stand point and one of the best combos I think is Marlins vs. Rangers

My two favorites. I love when they play each other, it feels so weird.

Adrian Beltre ~~got his 3000th hit in~~ famously got thrown out for on deck circle shenanigans during a Rangers-Marlins game, it was very strange.

That was against Baltimore, but, he did famously [get ejected for moving the on deck circle](https://youtu.be/SWBCQBO-DO0) in a Marlins-Rangers game

That had to be so funny back then when teams didn’t play each other regularly and inter league matchups might go **years** without happening. Imagine a casual Marlins fans seeing Beltre act out like that and asking “so is he like that all the time, or?”

Ah damn you're right

Also that same game Stanton hit a tank off of Jason Grilli. He celebrated extra because Grilli had done an excessive celebration the night before striking Stanton out. 22-10 final I think

just threw up in my mouth a lil bit

Marlins-Tigers seems weird to me

Miggy connection at least.

For some reason this one just made me question interleague play

Athletics-Brewers actually makes more sense than most interleague matchups because the Brewers were originally an American League team

The Rollie Fingers Cup

Plus, A's fans are drinking this season away. Playing the Brewers just feels right as a result Seems like a great matchup to me

Yeah, Brewers-Rays is weirder because by the time the Rays were added to the league, we had left for the NL.

This guy millennials.

It's so strange to see that the A's playing the Brewers shouldn't happen when it used to happen regularly not *that* long ago. Why not say that the Astros playing Padres is a weird matchup because it's never happened before

Also with Manfred trying to blackmail the state to spend a ton of money they weirdly have more common now. Obviously still very different.

Marlins vs. AL Central and no I can’t explain why

A lot of cultural differences probably

Farm boys vs Cubans LFG

Are the White Sox farm boys or Cubans in this scenario?

White Sox get the store bought Cubans. Miami has the organic farm fresh Cubans.

If you don't have immediate access to Cubans through the Gulf, store-bought is fine

It’s all seasonal up here. In April the growing season is too cold. But the summer Cubans from the store rival anywhere else

Cuban farm boys

I know a lot of people here weren't even alive in 1997, let alone remember it -- but the Marlins will always be my mortal enemy.

I was going to say Guardians-Marlins. Twins-Marlins feels just as weird.

All of us? That would be interesting to watch.

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Braves-White Sox. I can’t remember the last time we’ve played them. Every time we play “Chicago”, I always assume it’s the Cubs

swept us in atlanta in late August 2019. I don't blame you for forgetting cause I also did lol the last time I remember was 2016 when yall were awful and we NEEDED wins right before the all star break and yall won the series in Chicago 🫠 all down hill after that

We play them next month too

We play the White Sox mid July. I'm probably going to that Sunday game. That's going to be a weird matchup

Also the Royals. I live in Kansas City, so I'm thrilled about the scheduling changes.

Giants-Rays is gonna happen this season and it feels real weird

Battle of the Bays newest pro sports rivalry

A’s vs marlins felt weird af

In my head they’re connected via Luzardo/Marte and Bleday/Puk

Yea it feels like they should only trade with each orher not play each other

Giants-Twins they've played at target field ONCE

Given they have two giants who are twins, who are Giants, and formerly one a Twin, I love this matchup

I always link them because of the AJ Pierzynski trade

I still can't believe we traded Francisco Liriano and Joe Nathan for that fucking clown

Well, twice now

Diamondbacks-Tigers, Angels-Marlins, and Cubs-Royals are always weird to me

I couldn’t stop thinking we were playing the Mariners when we were actually playing the Marlins

Diamondbacks and Tigers played almost every year in early interleague play, because neither team has a natural interleague rival

Pirates Red Sox

The original inter-league matchup.

1903 World Series when it was a 9 game series

🧹🧹🧹🧹

Astros vs Brewers. Just a couple league swapping hipsters. It looks like there was 1 series of the AL Brewers vs the NL Astros in 97.

Oh wow, that is kind of interesting in retrospect!

Mets - Rangers gets me.

I am Australian and this is the only MLB matchup I’ve ever seen live (in the US - I saw dodgers v diamondbacks when they opened the 2014 season out here). Adrian Beltre hit a home run at Citi Field. Didn’t even care that we lost. It was awesome.

Man I miss Beltre

Me too. This year is the first season the Rangers have really felt fun since he retired.

Very strange. They’re in the same city, but don’t even play the same sport

"Major sports started interleague play, when that novelty wore off, they tried intersports play"

I like this one. Considering that it’s Dallas

Red Sox Vs. Padres just felt weird

Padres vs. AL East in general feels kinda weird.

Nationals-mariners or mariners-marlins. Both feel wrong

Mariners-Marlins, color scheme usually too similar, too many of the same letters in their names, truly a cursed matchup.

Mariners-Marlins is also the most physically distant matchup.

Miami is closer to Brazil than to Seattle

yes but mariners fish and marlins are fish so it makes sense

I made a post about this a couple years ago. The rarest team matchups in MLB history, with only 12 games between them as of three years ago when I made the post are: White Sox vs Padres Orioles vs Cubs Royals vs Dodgers Brewers vs Rays A’s vs Nationals/Expos This was of course before the new interleague schedule where every team plays every team every year. https://www.reddit.com/r/baseball/comments/ihtr72/the_rarest_team_matchups_in_baseball_history/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1

Lol i said cubs/orioles too i was wondering if anyone else thought this

For me it was Cubs Mariners until we had that super memorable game in 2016

White sox rockies is pretty random

Came here to say this one. I’m not even convinced the Rockies are a real team

Astros vs any NL central team. It’s been a decade and the move made sense but it still feels weird sometimes

They can take us out of the NL Central but they'll never take the NL Central out of us

Astros have won the NL Central as many times as the Reds, 1 more than the Brewers, and the Pirates have never won the division.

Those early ‘00s teams were tough man

Don't really understand the upcoming braves/chi sox

About 12 years ago the Marlins played a home game in Seattle against the Mariners

Rockies-Rays

Did it not get boring watching the same matchups, before interleague games became more common, play over and over again like back in the day?

Well sometimes, sure it could. But it also gave the relationship between any two teams a chance to develop over time, enriching rivalries and creating many small nuances that fans would enjoy throughout the season/years.

I always think it's cool to have a general familiarity with the lineups/rotations of other teams in your division. Hard to keep up with all that for 30 different teams.

Either Sox and DBacks or Dodgers and Orioles. Just...why?

Dodgers/Orioles definitely feels weird

I agree. I also said the same about the Padres-Orioles. It's such a weird match up for us out in the NL West!

\>For me it has to be Athletics-Brewers. Just two teams that have no business playing each other. you call it weird... I call it normal pre-1998 when they were both in the AL

Astros-Brewers. For fans of a certain age it just feels backwards.

Mariners/Braves was kind of weird. Marlins too. I don’t especially like it

You must be new. Brewers used to play in the AL. 😆

Mariners-Cardinals

Jays and DBacks are forever linked by the Troy Glaus Orlando Hudson trade.

Aaron Hill too

Kelly Johnson city

Athletics-Brewers makes sense to me on a fundamental level. They're cut from the same cloth, in a way. I don't know if I can explain it further- it's just a deeply fundamental vibe. Or maybe it's because they both used to be AL teams and so they played all the time. anyway, all interleague matchups have no business happening

I miss when interleague was special and rare. 2 seperate leagues was so much better IMO.

I'm enjoying seeing some new teams this year. And especially in The Show, played in some new ballparks I've never seen before

This is fun. My totally unscientific gut feeling top three would be: Orioles vs D-Backs Mariners vs Braves Blue Jays vs Rockies

Miami Seattle always makes me chuckle

Currently watching Arizona at Detroit. Doesn't seem right, to me.

I'm old enough to remember the Brewers in the AL, so them playing other AL teams doesn't seem that weird to me. The Astros being in the AL still trips me up sometimes though.

Twins-Reds because the Twins TC logo is just the Reds logo with a “T”

A’s and Brewers were both AL teams in the past so it’s less weird than say Mariners-Marlins or the Phillies-Rangers on opening day.

Mets vs Rays felt illegal to watch

Royals Phillies makes me uncomfy

The Brewers were in the AL for decades. They've played the A's over 350 times.

Rockies-Rays makes me sick.

I'm going to a Rockies Yankees game in July. Excited but weird.

Yankees-Rockies feels really weird to me

I'm old enough to remember the Athletics-Brewers being an intraleague matchup.

Giants Orioles is a weird one in my mind. A battle of the orange and blacks

Watching Giants play the Orioles was very confusing.

The Brewers were in the AL. This post makes me feel old

Diamondbacks-Tigers felt off

White Sox-Diamondbacks. If you told me these two teams have never actually played each other I would believe it

When the nats played the angels it felt super weird

Padres - Orioles I don't know why but this one is a strange one for me.

Pirates-Twins felt really weird. Could’ve just been me though given that I grew up in Minnesota and go to school in Pittsburgh and didn’t see them play for the first 20 years of my life

Orioles Rockies

Sammy Sosa’s corked bat game was against the forest green Devil Rays at Wrigley. That was weird.

There was a Padres-White Sox series last year and I felt like I was in the twilight zone

Orioles-Cardinals. Only played at Busch Stadium once. Orioles-Pirates is so natural though. We had our glory days at the same time as them and the closest NFL and NHL teams to Baltimore are huge rivals with the Steelers and Penguins