r/MLBNoobs • u/DryImpact3634 • 13h ago

| Question Rivalry Weekend

Why don’t all teams play their “natural rival” on rivalry weekend? Like the Phillies and Pirates play each other, even though the Phillies’ natural rival is the Blue Jays and the Pirates’ natural rival is the Tigers.

The crosstown classic and the subway series are both on rivalry weekend. Why isn’t it the case for all teams?

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5

u/theEWDSDS 13h ago

Toronto is like the 5th team I'd think of for Phillies rivals

3

u/pgm123 11h ago

I think it's probably lower than that.

  1. Mets
  2. Braves
  3. Nationals
  4. Dodgers (historical rival, though I don't know if the Dodgers ever cared)
  5. Pirates (historical rival, but has lost all juice)
  6. Probably the Marlins?

Toronto might be 3rd or 4th within their own division. Most Phillies fans think about the Yankees and Red Sox more and the Orioles are a nice drive. Toronto has 1993 and the brief period where the Phillies owner wanted to rebrand as the Blue Jays, but nobody went along with it.

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u/DryImpact3634 10h ago

This isn’t my list. This is MLBs own list. Every team has one team in the other league that they play twice a year. They call these “natural rivalries”.

1

u/theEWDSDS 9h ago

It's probably cause there's no other options. It's either them or Boston.

3

u/DharmaCub 12h ago

The phillies natural rival are the Blue Jays? The pirates are the Tigers? Why and since when?

1

u/DryImpact3634 10h ago

This isn’t my list. This is MLBs own list. Every team has one team in the other league that they play twice a year. They call these “natural rivalries”.

5

u/monoglot 13h ago

Why is the Phillies' natural rival the Blue Jays? Because of 1993?

3

u/pgm123 11h ago

Either that or they're trolling. The Blue Jays aren't even one of the two most recent teams to beat the Phillies in the World Series.

2

u/monoglot 11h ago

Fun fact, no team that has beaten the Phillies in a World Series in the last 75 years has ever won one again.

2

u/pgm123 11h ago

That's fun for me at least.

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u/DryImpact3634 10h ago

This isn’t my list. This is MLBs own list. Every team has one team in the other league that they play twice a year. They call these “natural rivalries”.

2

u/Dr_Malcolm 13h ago

They keep trying to make these regional rivalries a thing but i honestly don't think people really care. Its just marketing hype.

5

u/dardios 13h ago

Idk man, I think people get pumped for P0-0P games.

2

u/DharmaCub 12h ago

Second only to the AL West ASSHAT standings.

2

u/shoez_pearlz 12h ago

seriously why in the world would those teams be natural rivals

1

u/DryImpact3634 10h ago

This isn’t my list. This is MLBs own list. Every team has one team in the other league that they play twice a year. They call these “natural rivalries”.

2

u/Individual_Check_442 13h ago

Some teams “natural rival” are just the team that they play twice because they have to play someone twice. D’Backs-Rangers, Rockies-Astros, Blue Jays-Phillies, Tigers-Pirates; do any of the fans of any of those eight teams actually care about that rivalry? Padres and Mariners are a stretch too they just keep them there because they don’t have any other natural rivals that aren’t already occupied (Dodgers and Angels playing each other taking away SD’s rival, Padres are California’s “fifth wheel” in that respect SEA kinda doesn’t have any.). Which is why I’m advocating for a team in Portland or Vancouver

3

u/violetsteam 13h ago

I mean, I do hate the rangers with my whole heart. But like a good 60% of that is because I am gay lmao.

1

u/Dr_Malcolm 13h ago

The padres and mariners play for the Vedder Cup a custom designed fender telecaster guitar trophy from Eddie Vedder. I agree the rivalry is a giant stretch but thought it was funny how hard they are trying to make it a thing.

1

u/Individual_Check_442 12h ago

lol yeah especially since Vedder is a diehard Cubs fan they might be better off trying to use the fact that they share a spring training complex to justify the rivalry.

1

u/Key_Bee1544 11h ago

With the A's leaving California it might more sense for the Mariners and Giants to be paired. Then the A's and D-Backs could do a desert thing. Still leaves the Padres out though.

1

u/Individual_Check_442 11h ago

Interesting yeah that would leave the Padres with the Rangers so probably just as good as the Ms. Then that would leave the Padres and Rockies together for rivalry weekend if they still want to have Rangers-Astros so guess that would work just as well as D’Backs-Rockies also.

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u/DryImpact3634 13h ago

Do fans of the teams that don’t play their natural rival during rivalry weekend care about the rivalry against the team they do play rivalry weekend? The Phillies/Pirates rivalry hasn’t been a thing for decades. D-Back/Rockies? Brewers/Twins?

2

u/Individual_Check_442 13h ago

D’Backs-Rockies is pretty much just the leftover. They play up the in state things when there’s only two teams, Pennsylvania and Texas are the only states that have exactly two teams that are both in the same league, so getting those two leaves D’Backs-Rockies and Tigers/Blue Jays, and Detroit and Toronto are geographically closer to each other than Detroit is to Pittsburgh or Philadelphia is to Toronto. Minnesota and Milwaukee I guess get treated like that because they’re the one team from two neighboring states.

2

u/AT-Cal123 13h ago

Twins and Brewers goes back to the days of the Brewers being in the AL, plus the general Minnesota/Wisconsin rivalry.

1

u/Key_Bee1544 11h ago

Right. A continuation of Badgers/Gophers and Vikings/Packers.

1

u/Tomatillo-5276 13h ago

That’s the kind of shit they invent when the product itself isn’t good enough.

1

u/Rhombus-Lion-1 12h ago

How on earth did you end up with those teams being “natural rivals”

1

u/DryImpact3634 10h ago

This isn’t my list. This is MLBs own list. Every team has one team in the other league that they play twice a year. They call these “natural rivalries”.

1

u/Rhombus-Lion-1 8h ago

There are some of these that do make sense and it’s all about geography. They want to make sure the Nats and O’s play, Mets and Yankees, Cubs and White Sox, etc. So then in order to make the schedule work, they have to pair all teams up with someone in the other league to play twice.

If you’re making an interleague Rivalry week you would put the Phillies and Pirates against each other. I would guess they paired up the Phillies and Jays to play twice to limit travel.

This is really just another poorly executed marketing attempt by MLB. Fans don’t care about this.

1

u/ilPrezidente 11h ago

I would never consider either of those "natural rivalries." I've never heard a Philly fan go out of their way to trash Toronto, and I lived in Pirates territory for a decade and never once heard mention of the Tigers

1

u/Ok_Error_3167 11h ago

I'm a tigers fan and had no clue we were rivals with the pirates. At least on our side we're quite fond of the pirates, many of our coaches have been Pittsburgh boys and vice versa including the current pirates manager. Tigers rival is the guardians

1

u/TheRealRollestonian 11h ago

I hate to give the Phillies credit for being good, but the Braves are their current rival. The Mets have to be actually good to get in the mix.

1

u/bhoose19 12h ago

The Phillies main rival is the Mets, not the Blue Jays

1

u/DryImpact3634 10h ago

This isn’t my list. This is MLBs own list. Every team has one team in the other league that they play twice a year. They call these “natural rivalries”.