DYK: The first 20 years of Interleague Play

The National League against the American League.

It’s a matchup that was exclusively reserved for the World Series — that is, until 1997, when Major League Baseball injected Interleague Play into the regular season for the first time.

Interleague began as a couple of special weekends each summer when old city rivals finally got a chance to square off, and new rivalries were formed. Once the Astros moved over to the AL in 2013, Interleague Play became a year-long affair, giving us a much larger sample size going forward to ponder the age-old question: Which league is better?

After the first 20 seasons of this grand experiment, the preliminary results are in. Here are some things you should know about the first two decades of Interleague Play:

• When the Rangers hosted the Giants on June 12, 1997 (the first of four Interleague matchups that night), it was the first time in baseball history that an NL team had played an AL team in regular-season play. San Francisco landed the first punch for the Senior Circuit, winning 4-3.

• The AL holds the overall advantage, boasting a .529 win percentage and a +1,714 run-differential over the NL.

• After claiming four of the first seven season series through 2003, the NL has not prevailed in a single-season head-to-head since.

• The Yankees’ .583 win percentage (211-151) make them the most successful team in Interleague Play, followed closely by the Red Sox (.581). In fact, AL teams hold the top nine Interleague records, with the Mets coming up as the …

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