Is baseball’s National League the worst side in any of the four major sports? Going by reputation, surely. Another pathetic round of results in interleague play this year won’t help. The NL’s winning percentage this season against the American League in interleague play was just .454-and that was actually better than the .434 mark it has put up in 1,259 regular season games against the AL over the last five campaigns.
This is without a doubt wretched stuff, but every sport has a weaker half. With a .448 mark against the Western Conference over the same time, the NBA’s Eastern Conference hasn’t covered itself in glory. In football, the NFC’s .423 winning percentage against the AFC over the past five seasons is even worse than what the NL has done against the AL. And going by percentage of points won, the NHL’s Eastern Conference is weaker still, with a .410 mark since the 2004-2005 against teams from the Western Conference.
In baseball, the popular explanation for the gap between the leagues is that the presence of the wealthy New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox forces rival AL front offices to raise their games. There’s probably something to this: Similarly dominant teams like the New England Patriots, Detroit Red Wings and Los Angeles Lakers have forced rivals to rise to their level.
There’s good news for the weaker sides. With the exception of the NFL, where four of its last five champions come from the AFC, regular-season dominance doesn’t seem to matter in the postseason. Since 2005, teams from the stronger halves have won just seven of 13 possible championships in baseball, basketball and hockey. Perhaps the NL doesn’t need our pity after all.
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