With MLB’s Rivalry Weekend taking place, here’s a look at a handful of matchups I’d love to take in live at the ballpark.
Though the 2026 MLB season isn’t quite two months old yet, a weekend full of intense action is currently underway in the second iteration of the league’s “Rivalry Weekend,” including what are mostly interleague matchups across the board with bragging rights on the line.
While this weekend may not include the likes of Cubs-Cardinals and Dodgers-Padres games, it does allow for more focus on many of the sport’s interleague rivalries, where the stakes typically aren’t as high as they would be for a divisional game.
Although I’m one to believe that the best rivalries in baseball (and in all of sports) are those that involve teams within the same division, I can’t deny the vitriol that exists within some of these interleague rivalries.
Growing up as a diehard Cubs fan in a southwest Chicago suburb that was mostly populated with White Sox fans, I developed a longstanding disdain for the South Siders that remains to this day – despite the fact that the two teams are virtually never playing high-leverage games against one another.
New Yorkers would certainly agree, which is something I learned myself after attending a Subway Series game in Queens last July that included quite possibly the most hostile atmosphere I’ve ever been a part of at a sporting event.
I’ll never say no to attending just about any major live sporting event, but I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t get more excited about games that feature two longstanding rivals – knowing that it comes with extra energy in the crowd and more meaning on the line on the playing field.
Over the years I’ve been fortunate to attend a solid handful of Cubs-Cardinals and Cubs-Brewers games, in addition to the Subway Series matchup and bouts involving all of the Cubs’ and White Sox’s divisional rivals – yet there’s still a solid handful of rivalries I hope to experience in-person in the coming years.
Here’s a look at four of them:
1. New York Yankees-Boston Red Sox
The most obvious inclusion on this list, getting to see a Yankees-Red Sox game in either New York City or Boston has been a lifelong bucketlist item, undoutbedly inspired by the legendary postseason matchups between the teams in 2003 and 2004.
While it feels impossible that this rivalry would once again rise to the level of hatred it had during its heyday of the early-to-mid 2000’s, it’s a matchup with enough hard feelings to persist no matter where the two teams are in the standings.
Arguably the most famous rivalry in American sports that is often compared to the football rivalry between Ohio State and Michigan, the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry features everything that an intense divisional matchup should – raucous fan bases, legendary franchises and a shared history that goes back well over a century.
Though this rivalry got a much-needed boost last October with the two teams meeting in the AL Wild Card Round, it does not appear to be a premier rivalry thus far in 2026 – with the Red Sox currently in fifth place in the AL East with an underwhelming 18-26 record.
2. Los Angeles Dodgers vs. San Francisco Giants
The other obvious inclusion to this list, I always viewed these two rivalries, along with Cubs-Cardinals, as the three truly premier rivalries the sport has to offer. Three matchups where no matter what is going on in the standings, you can expect a lively crowd with plenty of fans from both sides.
This historic rivalry dates back to both franchises’ longstanding tenure in New York City throughout the first half of the 20th century, with the Dodgers occupying Ebbets Field in Brooklyn as the Brooklyn Dodgers while the Giants played at Manhattan’s Polo Grounds as the New York Giants.
Following the 1957 season, both teams relocated to California, reigniting their rivalry as the quintessential battle between Northern California and Southern California, where it has continued to serve as one of the sport’s most enduring and historic rivalries.
As I currently live in a Northern California city with a large contingent of Southern California natives, it certainly feels like nowadays most Dodgers fans direct their strongest vitriol towards the San Diego Padres, with whom they’ve quickly developed a fierce rivalry with in the 2020’s.
Yet as someone who has been obsessed with baseball my entire life, nothing could beat taking in a classic Dodgers-Giants game, whether that’s from the upper deck of Chavez Ravine or with a serene view of the San Francisco Bay from Oracle Park.
And as for the rivalry itself – don’t sleep on it too much, as it was just five years ago that the two teams clashed in a historic five-game NLDS that pitted the 107-win Giants and 106-win Dodgers against each other.
3. St. Louis Cardinals vs. Kansas City Royals
As an alum of the University of Missouri, this is the matchup I feel that I already missed my best opportunity to see – especially when considering that both the Cardinals and Royals were competitive during my time in college.
One of the more slept-on interleague rivalries, the I-70 series had its moment in the spotlight back in 1985 when the two teams met in the World Series – with the Royals battling back from a 3-1 series deficit to win their first Fall Classic – of course with a little help from Don Denkinger.
In the four decades since, the rivalry has mostly faded away, experiencing a few periods of resurgence since regular season interleague play began in 1997.
While this rivalry may not include the hatred that some other interleague matchups do, it isn’t all Midwest nice when it comes to the Show-Me Series. Having lived directly between St. Louis and Kansas City during my time at Mizzou in Columbia, it was fascinating to see the dynamic between fans of the two sides of the state – with Kansas City fans having the opportunity to rejoice during my sophomore year of college as they won the 2015 World Series.
In my experience, Royals fans hated the Cardinals at a higher level and on a more frequent basis than the inverse – but that of course doesn’t mean that some animosity on the St. Louis side never percolates, especially when one considers which city still has a football team.
With guarantees of a fun split crowd and an excellent ballpark experience in either location, I’d love to get a taste of this interleague rivalry at some point down the line.
4. Atlanta Braves vs. New York Mets
When it comes to the NL East, you can really take your pick of any matchup that involves the Braves, Mets and Philadelphia Phillies – but I’d probably lean towards a Braves-Mets game if I had to pick one to experience first.
A rivalry that exploded in intensity at the turn of the century as the insurgent Mets posed a threat to Atlanta’s 14 consecutive NL East titles, the two teams first met in the postseason in the 1999 NLCS, which saw the Braves close out the Mets in six games after initially taking a 3-0 series lead.
The following season, it was the Mets that made their way to the World Series, thanks to some help from the St. Louis Cardinals who had knocked off Atlanta in the NLDS. In the quarter-century-plus since then, the two teams have continued to build on their rivalry.
Though largely dormant during the 2010’s, the rivalry has revived in a big way during the 2020’s as both teams have had multiple years of being competitive in the first five seasons of the decade.
Most notably, the Braves denied the Mets the NL East title in 2022 despite both teams sharing the same record thanks to a late-season sweep, while the Mets had their big moment in 2024 with a majestic last-day-of-the-season comeback that helped lock up a postseason berth for the club.
Though this rivalry may not bring as much of the split-crowd atmosphere that a Mets-Phillies game is likely to include, the recent history between the two clubs speaks for itself – with this serving as a rivalry that is both nostalgic and contemporary for this 30-year-old baseball freak.
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