WHY IS THE AMERICAN LEAGUE SO MUCH BETTER?

WHY IS THE AMERICAN LEAGUE SO MUCH BETTER? Back in the day, American League fans and National League fans used to enjoy arguing about which league was better. The only bases for comparison were the World Series and the All-Star game and, possibly, how players did when they changed leagues. There was a feeling for a period that the National League was better based on how they did in the All-Star game, although I never admitted it. Now there is interleague play, and the American League has established a decisive advantage. As this article points out, in the five years from 2005 to 2009, the American League won 714 games in interleague play and lost 536, for a winning percentage of .571 (57 .1%). (This wikipedia article has the breakdown by year.) This is not a small sample. It’s 1250 games. If a team won 57% of its games in a season, it would win 93 games. Why should there be such a large advantage? The teams have the same rules for acquiring players. The American League has two franchises with large player payrolls (Boston and the Yankees), but the interleague figures include all the teams. Why did the difference develop, starting in 2005? Could the higher level of day-to-day competition have improved the players in the American League? I don’t think that could be the explanation, but I can’t think of any other.