Premise: Traditionalists complain it will dilute ancient rivalries, screw up the year-to-year continuity of statistics, obliterate the quaint differences between the two leagues (principally, the designated-hitter rule), and spoil the climactic, virgin mystique of the World Series, which, until now, was the leagues' only intercourse.

Hypothesis: Traditionalists complain that it will make the rivalries more intense.
Relation: contradiction