Is this year's unbalanced schedule good or bad? It depends on who your favorite teams are and how often you want them to play certain opponents.

If you're a fan of some of baseball's fiercest rivalries, it's a very good thing. The Yankees and Red Sox played 13 times last year, with only three of those games scheduled after mid-July. Thanks to this season's unbalanced schedule, they play each other 19 times, including six times in September. The Dodgers and Giants played 12 times last year, with only three games scheduled after July. They play 19 times this year, including six games in September.

Series to watch

Alex Rodriguez plays his former teammates 20 times, including the season's first weekend (April 6-8) when the Rangers host the Mariners in Arlington. A-Rod returns to Seattle for the first time (appropriately, on Tax Day, April 16). If he makes the All-Star team, he could play 11 games in Seattle. There are 51 games among the Cardinals, Reds and Cubs. Read that as 51 potential matchups between McGwire and Griffey, Mac and Sosa, or Sammy and Junior. The Red Sox and Yankees play 19 times, with the first series beginning April 13 in Fenway. Will they knock each other out of contention? Not likely. Each team also plays the Orioles and Devil Rays 19 times apiece. Fifty years after the Shot Heard 'Round the World, the Dodgers and Giants play 19 times, with six games in September. The White Sox pick up games against the Twins (eight consecutive losing seasons), Royals (six consecutive losing seasons) and Tigers (seven consecutive losing seasons), while playing the Yankees and Red Sox only six games apiece (Chicago doesn't play the Yankees until mid-September). Meanwhile, rival Cleveland plays the Yanks and Sox nine times each. And don't forget, the White Sox play the Cubs six times in interleague play (Cleveland doesn't play them at all). Watch out. Frank Thomas and Magglio Ordonez lose games against Pedro and the Red Sox, and Clemens, Mussina and the Yankees, but gain games against the Royals (5.48 ERA) and Twins (5.24 ERA). Get your tickets now: The Twins, Royals and Tigers play 57 games amongst themselves. None of those teams has had a winning record since the strike.

But if you're a fan of a past rivalry, you may wonder why it disappeared like the two-hour game. Separated by just 214 air miles, the Detroit Tigers and Toronto Blue Jays used to have one of the game's better rivalries. Thanks to this season's unbalanced schedule, they won't play until Labor Day weekend.

And if you're a White Sox fan, do more games against the Twins, Royals and Tigers offset the loss of games against the Yankees and Red Sox (other than in the won-loss record)? From an entertainment perspective, how do more games against Doug Mientkiewicz compensate for fewer games against Nomar Garciaparra?

If you want the division races to mean more, however, you probably like the new schedule. The Athletics and Mariners finished a half-game apart in the American League West last year. They played 13 times and their only four games after July drew near-capacity crowds. They play 19 times this year, with two series in April, two in June and two in September.

But if you think the wild card race already is out of whack, you have ample ammunition to hate the new schedule.

It was one thing to have unbalanced schedules when teams were only playing for a division title (as was the case in the old two-division National League), but the addition of the wild card -- and interleague play -- changes the landscape significantly. The Mets and Diamondbacks, for example, could battle for the National League wild card, yet they play each other only six times. The Mets play that many interleague games against the Yankees alone.

Even within divisions, there are significant differences. The White Sox only play the Yankees and Red Sox six times each. Cleveland plays them nine times each.

What do unbalanced schedules, wild cards and interleague play do to the competitive integrity of the schedule overall?

Commissioner Bud Selig shrugs at such concerns.

"In baseball we have worried too much about that sort of thing," Selig said. "Look, you can't have a pure schedule. So the Mets will play the Diamondbacks only six times. That's all right."

What about when one team finishes the season one game behind another for the wild card spot while playing a vastly different schedule? Won't there be justified complaints that the schedule wasn't fair? That one division had a rougher schedule than another? That one team benefitted from additional games against very bad teams? Already, AL West teams, with no clear patsy in the division, say they are at a disadvantage for the wild card.

"They all play 162 games," Selig said. "My goodness graces. It can't be perfect. We heard so many complaints about the wild card a couple years ago. What if the wild card got into the World Series? Won't that be terrible? Funny, you don't hear that any more. And you didn't hear it when you had two wild-card teams in the Super Bowl."

While there might be some effect on player statistics -- Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Ken Griffey Jr. get even more games against NL Central pitching -- Steve Hirdt of the Elias Sports Bureau says it would be very small and probably unnoticeable.

The bottom line, he says, is that it's impossible to objectively say whether any division gains an advantage with the unbalanced schedule.

"I don't think you could say what the best division, top to bottom, is right now," he said. "There wasn't a division playing a balanced schedule last year where all the teams were over or under .500. I think you can make the case the NL Central hasn't been that strong in recent years, but even that doesn't mean it would affect the statistics.

"You have to go a long way to have something affect statistics so much that people say that they will question those statistics. People are aware of minor differences in baseball and it's something we should treasure and not eliminate. For instance, Coors Field doesn't bother me at all."

And remember, Hirdt said, "the way things look in the winter are not the way they look in the summer."

Hirdt says he favors the schedule, saying "Whatever minuses come up for the wild card competition are outweighed by the pluses of the added legitimacy of the division races."

The schedule does put more games within a team's time zone. That's good for TV revenue and for fans. More games within a team's time zone means more games in prime time (higher ratings and higher advertising rates) and fewer games starting during rush hour or after you've gone to bed.

And while more games against the Devil Rays and Phillies may not excite fans in a particular city, it could help a team's won-loss record and thus lead to increased attendance, as well as better playoff hopes (don't think some teams in the Central divisions haven't considered this).

On the other hand, the unbalanced schedule doesn't necessarily solve the travel concerns of some teams, one of the new format's stated goals. The Mariners, for example, save just 1,000 miles from the new schedule to the old one. That's not much of a savings.

Still, Selig says the unbalanced schedule is the sensible and desired arrangement.

"When we expanded in 1977, we went to a one-year balanced schedule because we couldn't get an unbalanced schedule worked out," Selig said. "And 24 years later, we were still in that balanced schedule. So the question was, why did you go to that division schedule in the first place?

"I think we have best of all worlds, because you've got interleague play, you've got three divisions with the wild card and you're back to an unbalanced schedule. And that's how you build rivalries, where it's most meaningful. I've had very little opposition to this within baseball. Now that I think of it, nobody articulated publicly that they were opposed to it. Some teams were concerned they wouldn't play the Yankees as much, but I think it's for the best."

"The breakthrough in the schedule is not this year and not when baseball went to three divisions," Hirdt said. "The breakthrough was in 1969 when they went to division play and you had teams playing 18 games against each team in the division and 12 outside.

"It is a fact of life that the leagues have grown so big that the scheduling practices have to change. I was brought up that it was almost an act of religion that every team had to play the same number of games against everyone. That article of faith has eroded little by little over time and yet the game is still here and still wildly popular."

Jim Caple is a Senior Writer for ESPN.com.