DATE: Wednesday, June 11, 1997              TAG: 9706110685

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BOB MOLINARO

                                            LENGTH:   59 lines

INTERLEAGUE PLAY SELLS, EVEN IN PLACES LIKE PITTSBURGH

Interleague play is a gimmick hatched from desperation. But that doesn't mean it will not work. Or that, over the short haul, it won't help baseball.

Novelties sell, don't they? If interleague play turns out to be the athletic equivalent of the pet rock, well, baseball has suffered worse humiliations.

For now, baseball is optimistic, a rare place to find the game. Baseball is counting on interleague play, which begins this week, to have the same effect on the public as Beanie Babies do on children.

So far, this seems to be happening. Ticket sales for the first round of interleague games are up 30 percent.

With baseball fans, like the population at large, there is no accounting for taste. The Houston Astros expect bigger crowds than usual when the Minnesota Twins come calling. Pittsburgh, which averages 17,000 for Pirates home games, anticipates more than 35,000 each night for the Kansas City Royals.

It is a powerful gimmick that can persuade the public to treat the arrival of the Twins and Royals, a pair of unsexy sub-.500 teams, as a special occasion.

The Twins and Royals cannot excite anyone in the American League; perhaps not even in Minnesota and Kansas City. Did somebody mention to Houston that Kirby Puckett is retired? Do Pittsburghers understand that George Brett no longer swings a bat?

But, then, fans aren't buying baseball, are they? Interleague play is a transparent gimmick to try to lure people back into the ballpark. For sure, baseball can use the attention, not to mention the revenue. Short term, the game can only benefit from the publicity that naturally chases any novelty.

Traditionalists, of course, do not approve. That includes a lot of players and managers. They believe that baseball should celebrate its differences, not try to imitate football and basketball.

Some of this is the sort of grousing that accompanies any change. But the critics have a point.

One common argument in favor of interleague play is that it is done routinely by the NFL, NBA and other leagues. But these comparisons only point up the inherent weakness of the gimmick over the long haul.

When the Houston Oilers of the AFC travel to Green Bay of the NFC, and when the Seattle Seahawks play at Chicago, is there anything automatically special about these football games? Of course not.

Does an interconference basketball game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Charlotte Hornets straighten Hubie Brown's hair? Not likely.

After the initial burst of hype, who outside Seattle and Colorado is going to care how a series between the Mariners and Rockies comes out?

If the intent is to mimic the World Series, then something very important is missing from the equation: consequence. When the Orioles and Braves play, something more should be at stake than a couple of games in the standings.

Interleague play will grab the attention of many people. But for how long?

When the curiosity wears thin, what remains is baseball, pretty much as it always was. Does the game in its purest essence connect with enough people to thrive without a gimmick?

Apparently, the people who run Major League Baseball fear not. Let's hope they're wrong.

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