Posted on 07/26/2015 12:25:06 AM PDT by MinorityRepublican
In 1973, Major League Baseball changed forever. Following a year when the American League recorded a batting average of .239, the AL instituted the designated hitter rule, allowing a team to place a hitter in the batting order instead of forcing the team’s pitcher to step up to the plate. Since that season, there has been an imbalance between the AL and the National League — which still requires a spot in the batting order for the team’s pitcher.
Now, more than 40 years later, talks of making the two leagues consistent have begun to heat up once again. “It’s interesting, I have never been bothered that’s there’s a little difference between the two leagues. I love to hear people fight about it,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said on a New York Yankees broadcast in early June. “I’m a big one for the idea that if people are talking about baseball, it’s good for all of us. I think it’s a great source of debate.”
It didn’t take long for the debate to start this season. On April 26, St. Louis Cardinals star pitcher Adam Wainwright suffered a season-ending Achilles tendon tear while at bat, leading many — MLB players included — to question the reasoning behind forcing pitchers to hit in the NL.
“If you look at it from the macro side, who’d people rather see hit — Big Papi or me?,” Washington Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer said following Wainright’s injury, according to CBS Sports. “Who would people rather see, a real hitter hitting home runs or a pitcher swinging a wet newspaper? Both leagues need to be on the same set of rules.”
Scherzer used to be pretty mediocre but worked on his game and has been lights out the past couple of seasons.
His logic is unsound though, if you’re gonna have a DH for the pitcher why not just DH for every other lousy hitter on the team?
I’ve always hated the DH. However, as an Astros fan, I’m stuck with it now because the Astros were forced to move to the AL as condition of selling the team. I miss the strategy that used to be part of the game when it came time to make the decision to pinch-hit or not. Besides, with both of the Astros’ first basement hitting below .200, they are the ones who need a DH. A pitcher could hit as well.
I remember seeing the Dodgers use Drysdale as a pinch hitter.
Braves pitcher Tony Cloninger is only player to hit 2 grand slams in same game. Missed a third by 1 foot. 9 RBI’s.
#1 - Owners and media want offense.
#2 - Players want an extra higher-paid spot on the roster instead of a minimum salary guy.
Almost no one else matters as long as revenue keeps coming in.
I agree. No DH for either. I also like the comment of why don’t we have an offense and defense team in baseball like football....that would be interesting.
8 man batting rotation is a good thought but won’t work. It changes the entire game. No more “cleanup hitter” and the strategy for the game changes dramatically.
Simplest thing to do, let pitchers hit, or if you want a DH, he will always hit in the 9th spot of the order. If you move the DH to the 9th spot, a ball club will save on average 15 million a year, due to no longer a need for that 30 home run hitter.
Baseball is pure and needs to stay that way. The AL is not pure, it’s entertainment.
I met him once, a long time ago. He was in a foul mood because it was cold and snowing in Vermont in November.
Kind of a douche. Maybe it was a bad day.
But seeing some other pitcher brush him back would have been kind of fun.
Ah, good points!
Having watched five decades in a AL city and then three years in a NL city, I am ready to say that like the French Enlightenment, the DH is a failed theory of the game.
First off there are lots of pitchers who can hit, and they should. Second, I hate ‘players’ like David Ortiz who can’t play in the field. Baseball players play both sides, hell just have an offensive and defensive team!
Yes, I have played a lot of baseball, through college, and couldn’t call myself a baseball player if I was a DH
The basic problem is that pitchers don't pitch every day the way most players can (theoretically) play every game in a 162-game season. As a result, any pitcher in high school and college who develops as a solid hitter is going to face a choice between pitching every fifth or sixth day, or playing a regular position every day. This is exactly how Babe Ruth ended up migrating from a star pitcher to an everyday outfielder back in his early years with the Red Sox.
I can see why fans like the strategy of the NL game, but baseball should not be played in such a way that a manager regularly faces a dilemma in the later innings: whether or not to pinch-hit for a starting pitcher who is pitching well but is an awful hitter. To me, the appeal of the DH isn't that it promotes more offense, but that it takes this idiotic element out of the game.
It’s part of the game right from Little League, it should stay that way.
Nope, it's not "part of the game". There are five minor league levels -- rookie, A, Advanced A, AA and AAA. Pitchers do not hit in the lower three levels. And games between AL farm clubs at the AA and AAA levels employ the DH.
At the professional level, the pitcher-as-hitter is the exception rather than the rule.
Every poll that MLB has taken of its fans shows a 50/50 split for and against the DH.
The 50% for comes from AL cities. The 50% against comes from NL cities.
Which goes to prove that fans in both leagues are getting what they want.
Ergo, why change it?
Why?
As it is right now, each league's fans are getting what they want.
Why change that?
wow, this is a never ending debate isn’t it?
Sort of like how guys of a certain age, who watched Gilligan’s Island, would debate : Ginger or Mary Anne.
no DH. no artificial turf. no wild card. no unbalanced schedule. no interleague play.
To that, I would add, let’s trim back the regular season so that we don’t have November baseball. This year, the World Series will end in November.
I enjoy baseball but the season is too long, what with all these layers of playoffs, and they end up playing the most important games of the year in bad baseball weather sometimes. Bad weather which could be avoided if they simply slice a few weeks off the calendar.
No DH! It’s a team sport. If you’re on the team, you take a turn at bat just like everyone else. No prima donnas.
I stand corrected then.
To me, having a DH just takes something away from the integrity of the game.
Having the pitcher hit is one more variable that would make baseball less predictable and thereby more interesting.
I spent the last twenty years working in baseball and don't really have a dog in the race. But I'm of the view that the argument is good for the game.
I will say this though: I detest watching the pitcher hit. By and large, you know what's going to happen as he approaches the plate. If there's nobody on, he'll swing away and make an out. If there is a baserunner and there are less than two outs, he'll attempt to bunt.
And we can all pretty much pre-determine when the situation calls for a pinch-hitter. So much for "strategy".
Pitchers don't work on their hitting...because they're paid to pitch.
As a consequence, if you measure it decade-by-decade, pitchers have become worse hitters every decade since the 1910's.
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