FWIW, the DH is an abomination. As a reluctantly offered compromise, remove the pitcher from the batting line-up in both leagues and dump the DH. no one wants to see a pitcher flail away at a fast ball and they don’t make pitchers like Babe Ruth anymore.
Perhaps not, but the strategy involved in mid to late inning pinch hitting when a pitcher may be coming up in the batting order during a crucial point in the game is compelling. That's what makes the NL superior to the AL hands down.
AL is addicted to the DH. Boston, for example, where David Ortiz is a very hot hitter these days. Heavens, the Red Sox would shudder at the thought of putting Papi in the field, so they breathe easy that they don’t have to.
>>But here’s another question: Is Ortiz making teams like the Yankees — and even the Red Sox — rethink their strategy toward the DH spot?...Not only does no DH come close to Ortiz’ production against lefties, but his .355 batting average against southpaws ranks among the best in baseball.
http://www.weei.com/sports/boston/baseball/red-sox/rob-bradford/2011/06/08/david-ortiz-quest-make-designated-hitter-cool
(Yanks may covet Ortiz next year...)
How do you do that? Eight batters? That's ridiculous. Let the pitchers bat. In the AL they plunk guys all the time because they know they can't get hit.
Homosexuality, DH and regular season interleague play are all crimes against nature.
Having the pitcher bat adds a strategy to the game, weak spot in the line-up, conservation of pitchers for pinch hitters, tiring of pitchers that get on base, response to bean balls and it's darn fun when your pitcher hits a home run in the World Series (Blanton).
FWIW, the DH is an abomination. As a reluctantly offered compromise, remove the pitcher from the batting line-up in both leagues and dump the DH. no one wants to see a pitcher flail away at a fast ball and they don’t make pitchers like Babe Ruth anymore.
One thing about the DH, and your suggestion about having an 8-batter lineup, is the fact that the home team loses a built-in advantage. It is all very well to say that you have a simple, single-substitution rule in baseball which applies to both teams - but in reality, the fact that the important substitutions are generally made for offensive (pinch hitter) rather than defensive purposes means that the visiting team loses defense with its pinch hitters an inning before the home team does.If, for example, both teams pinch hit for their pitchers in the seventh inning, the visiting team's pitcher doesn't pitch in the seventh inning but the home team's pitcher does.Consequently you would expect that National League teams would do better in interleague play than the American League, because the DH rule should be more of a help to the visiting team than the home team. The DH rule presumably means that the 25th man on the roster is a DH rather than a pitcher, which would might not help the American League team at home against a National League team as much as it disadvantages it when visiting one (tho I suppose that during the regular season the National League teams could call up an extra hitter and send down a pitcher, and the American League teams could do the reverse. But that's not permissible during the World Series . . .).
Actually your 8-man lineup can in principle be reduced to a six-man one (just enough to account for a three men on base, two men out, and a batter at the plate). If the pitcher can be exclusively a defensive specialist, why not the shortstop and the center fielder?