First of its Kind, Interleague Swap

During the course of every baseball season the usual basics are set in stone. Teams are set to play 162 games during the regular season, the defense and batting alignments features 9 players, and the guest away team bats first with the home team batting in the bottom of that inning. Pretty basic stuff. Well, come Friday night, July 25, when Philadelphia Phillies and the Toronto Blue square up in a 3 game series, the rules go topsy-turvy the fundamental stage will be turn upside down.

When first pitch is thrown Friday night by Blue Jays 6 foot 1 inch starting pitcher Jesse Litsch, it will be on a Phillies mound where the Blue Jays will be the home team. That’s right, you read correct. The Blue Jays will play as the home team, playing baseball on the road against the Phillies in their home ballpark of Citizens Bank Park.

But how did this crazy turn of events come about? Due to the predicted presence protesters, fences were put up around Toronto to make way for the G20 summit. It is there that the G20 Summit is planed through the next three days to discus the current economic troubles. It was because of this it was deemed safest for the game to be played elsewhere for security reasons.
But when it comes to a home field advantage the question is, “how will this affect the game itself.” As before mentioned, the order in which teams bat is changed, along with the jerseys each team will wear that night. The Blue Jays will wear home jerseys whereas the Phillies, playing in their own home ballpark, will sport the guest away jerseys.

Phillies will still man their home bug with the Blue Jays in the guest’s. But the real storyline people will be watching is the performance of ex-Blue Jay and current Philly starting pitcher Roy Halladay.

With a record of 8 wins and 6 losses, Roy Halladay will go up against his old ballclub for the first time. It was only this past offseason when a trade transaction between these two ballclub’s was made, that brought Halladay to the city of brotherly love and lead him on to pitch a perfect game. Only the 20^th to be pitched in Major League Baseball history.

It will be a true test to see how Halladay will perform considering how he has record losses in each of his last three outings. Giving up only a combined total of 10 earned runs in those three previous outings and sporting a current season ERA of 2.43.

One final note, Elias Sports Bureau plans to record any homeruns hit during this series to be accredited has happening in Citizens Ball Park. But the on record, this game will be counted as being played in the Rogers Center, the home of the Toronto Blue jays.

Regardless, by weeks end the Blue Jays will collect money because of what should have been their home game start, Roy Halladay will have pitch for the first time against his old ballclub, and Interleague Play will have recorded its first home swap series in its existence from the time in was created in 1997.

That’s life, that’s baseball.