Is the designated hitter coming to a National League park near you?

Sports Illustrated ^ | Tuesday March 6, 2012 | Tom Verducci

[TBP]

Major League Baseball has expanded its pool of postseason teams to 10 -- up from four just 19 years ago -- and next year will re-align into 15-team leagues that make for at least one interleague series all season long. But the biggest change of all may be around the next corner: the end of baseball as it was originally designed.

"I would be shocked if 10 years from now there's not a DH in both leagues," said one influential baseball source.

[TBP]

I can’t imagine why.

[TankerKC]

I will fight the dh with as much fervor as I do islam and liberalism.

Perfect!

[angcat]

I don't understand why? Your pitcher can rest and you can get a nice powerful DH to hit the ball. It's a great thing.

[TankerKC]

If you look at a tape of an old basketball game, you would really want to throw up - nowhere near the skill level and coordination on display back then as is standard now.

They actually had to dribble and couldn't travel or carry the ball back then.

Put the best team of today against a team from the past...and play by the rules as enforced then...and the old timers win every time. IMHO, of course

[boop]

So Walter Johnson hit .235 lifetime? Unbelievable for a pitcher.

I should post at baseball fever, but I've always wondered certain things:

When did "relief pitching"come into vogue? In the olden days a pitcher was expected tofinish games, in factwould occasionally pitch adouble header. Was itconsidered unmanly to "need" a reliever?

Why were pitchers halfway decent hitters until say 40 years ago? Now it's a miracle if they hit .100

Speaking of Walter Johnson, he was known as a strictly fastball pitcher. No curves, no sliders, etc. what made him so effective? A strict fastball pitcher in 2012 would get destroyed by batters.

Why do guys in the early days of the century look so damn OLD? Ty Cobb looked 50 years old in 1920, but he was still a "young" man.