MILWAUKEE – Baseball’s interleague schedule is on us once again.

It’s an idea that is as flawed today as it was when it began in 1997. Interleague was created as an attempt to breathe new life back into baseball. The game was struggling at the time, and this would allow fans to see different teams, and for geographical rivals to meet and generate interest.

The problem, for the Red Sox, is that the interest is a one-way street. It’s a big deal when the Sox play in Pittsburgh for the first time in a century or when they go rolling into the Vet for three games with the Phillies. On the other hand, the teams coming into Fenway don’t elevate interest at all.

Are you pumped and jacked for that big series with the Astros next weekend? How about the much anticipated showdown with the Marlins at the end of the month?

Fact is the Red Sox don’t need National League opponents to create more excitement at Fenway Park. As long as Boston’s in the hunt, Fenway will be buzzing. Want to cause a stir? Put 10 more games with the Yankees on the schedule.

Still, interleague play did get the blood flowing this week: the blue blood of the Yankees. George Steinbrenner, it seems, doesn’t like the system either. At least, not this year.

“We play Cincinnati which is a fine, fine ball club,” said The Boss this week. “They’re going to be in the middle of it. Then we play the Cubs.

“Now, who is the other guy playing? They’re playing Milwaukee. What’s right about that? They’re playing Pittsburgh and Milwaukee and we’re playing Cincinnati and the Cubs. I think they got the best of the deal.”

Tom Hanks once told us there’s no crying in baseball, but apparently there is whining. The Evil Empire thinks the fix is in. Of course, King George didn’t mention last year’s schedule when the Sox played the Atlanta Braves six times and the Yankees feasted on the lowly Mets. Interleague play was fine then.

Now, it’s different. Steinbrenner’s team isn’t the juggernaut it was a few years ago. The paranoid despot is mad at the luxury tax and revenue sharing put into place when the new collective bargaining agreement was reached last year. He’s mad that his team slumped after a torrid start. Now he’s mad that the Red Sox and Major League Baseball have conspired (in his mind) to put the Bronx Bombers at a competitive disadvantage.

He’s mad as hell, and he’s not going to take it anymore.

Actually, he has to. As Red Sox principal owner John Henry pointed out this week, the schedule is made more than at least a full season in advance and is, by nature, cyclical. There’s no way to tell which teams will be competitive in a year or two. It’s impossible to make a perfectly even schedule, with teams from different A.L. divisions (playing different N.L. divisions) battling for a wild-card playoff berth.

“Suck it up” was Henry’s comment when asked if he had any thoughts on Steinbrenner’s anti-interleague outburst. Henry was short, to the point, and dead-on.

At least these games against N.L. teams have been able to distract us from the brutal Sox pitching over the past two weeks. Thousands of Sox fans hit the road to see two terrific new ballparks in Pittsburgh and Milwaukee. And, better yet, they got to hear Steinbrenner scream about the injustice of it all.

I might just have to rethink my position on this interleague thing. It might have some upside after all.

Lewiston native Tom Caron is a sports analyst for NESN telecasts of the Boston Red Sox.