Look Ahead: Not all rivalries should command same respect

The TV people would call this rivalry week, and while we'd get sick of the promos, we'd have to agree with the concept.

Longtime S.D. closer Trevor Hoffman on Padres-M's series: 'It's not Yankees-Mets. That's for sure.' (Getty Images)

It's Padres-Mariners week.

Yeah, Padres-Mariners. For whatever reason, baseball demands these two teams meet in two series every season. Padres-Mariners gets the same respect as Yankees-Mets.

"It's a little different," said ex-Yankee, ex-Met and current Padre Tony Clark, stifling a laugh. "The only connection here is that we share a spring training complex."

What, you mean kids in San Diego don't grow up hating the Mariners?

"I can honestly tell you that the word 'Mariners' wasn't in my vocabulary when I was a kid," said Clark, who grew up in San Diego as a Padre fan.

This is a rivalry?

"It's not Yankees-Mets," Padres closer Trevor Hoffman said. "That's for sure."

It's not even Royals-Cardinals, another of baseball's protected rivalries (two series a season, every season).

"People care," said Yankees first-base coach Tony Pena, who once managed the Royals. "People really care."

Leaving out the single-city rivals, here's how the "other" rivalries rank on the care-meter:

1. Royals-Cardinals. They care more in Kansas City than in St. Louis, but that's fine, because they really do care in Kansas City.