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.”
No DH in the NL. Wish they would stop trying to get the NL to accept the DH.
Yep and I don't like it. I went to a minor league game and it's not as interesting that there's less strategy involved.
Wrong.
He may be the only pitcher but Fernando Tatis hit two grand slams in the same inning against the same pitcher. Cards vs. Dodgers April 23, 1999 against Chan Ho Park. 8 RBI’s.
I agree.OTOH there actually is a bias against the visiting team in baseball’s single-substitution rule. The bias is that when you get to, say, the seventh inning and you pinch hit for your pitcher, if you’re the visiting team you have to substitute a new pitcher in the bottom of the seventh. If you’re the home team, your pitcher has already pitched the top of the seventh when you substitute a hitter for him.
The result of that situation is that the DH rule helps the disadvantaged visiting team. And, as a result, (the issue of the adaptation of the roster to the DH rule aside) the NL team visiting an AL park is better off than an AL team visiting a NL park.
And while we're talking about rule changes that would have a positive impact on the game, I'd like to see MLB implement an active/inactive roster arrangement similar to what you have in the NFL, NHL, etc. Each team can dress 24 players for a game, but would have the ability to have 2-3 extra roster positions for players that can be de-activated for each game. This would eliminate a few of the wasted roster spaces held by players who will never appear in a game (typically the other starting pitchers in the rotation).
Hence, the conventional wisdom in baseball: "Play for the tie at home and the win on the road." If the visiting team comes to bat in the top of the ninth inning trailing by a run, they should play out the inning in a way that maximizes their odds of scoring more than one run -- since they may never get a chance to bat again if they tie the game and the home teams wins the game in the bottom of the inning. Conversely ... If the home team comes to bat in the bottom of the ninth inning trailing by a run, they should play out the inning in a way that maximizes their odds of scoring that one run even if it means sacrificing their odds of scoring more than one run. They can afford to play it safe this way because if they tie the game they always have the comfort of knowing that they'll bat again in extra innings.
It's interesting how these sports work. From what I can tell, baseball and hockey are the only major sports where the home team has an advantage like this written into the rules of the game. In hockey, the home team always has the "last change" of players on the ice for every faceoff.
Ah yes. Brings back memories of Sunday doubleheaders. And the occasional twi-night doubleheader. Nowadays I think the only doubleheaders happen when making up a rained out game.
Baseball has changed but not all changes have been for the better. Or maybe I’m too nostalgic
Later, they became almost a necessity for a 154-game schedule because teams traveled by between cities and needed a lot of off-days in their schedule to get to places like Detroit, Chicago and St. Louis. That all changed with air travel, even with teams spread all over the country.
P.S. — The Boston Braves played 38 doubleheaders in 1931, which I believe is the all-time record for one season. That means they played 76 games in doubleheaders that year, which is almost half of their 154-game schedule!
no DH. no artificial turf. no wild card. no unbalanced schedule. no interleague play.
***************************************************************
Agree with everything you stated and for my part, they could eliminate the all star game and any “home run derbies”.
Today, a lot of things like the designated hitter and doubleheaders are governed by the Major League Players Association agreements. Players need to hear about it if things are to change back.
Of course back then, the time it took to play a doubleheader is the same that it takes to play one game today.
Which contributed to skyrocketing salaries.
*********************************************************************
M.L.B. minimum salary $500,000, due to rise to $507,500 next year.
Right — that’s a good point.
Knuckleballer Wilbur Wood was the last pitcher to do this -- in 1973. That was an unusual case, though. He was pulled in the first inning of the first game after fewer than 30 pitches, so he volunteered to start the second game, too!
I know also in the minor leagues, I think the second game was only seven innings, if not both games.
Yep its crazy how games have gotten longer and longer. They have tried to speed things up and had some success this season.
Its hard to believe how many 3 1/2 to 4 hour games there are. And these are 9,inning games not extra innings.
The Player’s Union will never get rid of the DH. It will be in the National League eventually.
Right. Players want another big contract and owners want extra offense. It’s a done deal. They’re just trying to figure out how to spring it with the least resistance.
Major League Baseball adopted a rule change in 1980 that requires the starting DH to bat at least once in a game, unless the opposing team changes pitchers before the DH comes to bat.
This rule was known as the "Earl Weaver Rule," and was passed to outlaw an interesting strategy Weaver used in home games late in the 1980 season when he was managing the Baltimore Orioles. He would submit a starting lineup with a player in the DH spot who he had no intention of putting in the game (usually the next game's starting pitcher). He would then pinch-hit for the DH the first time the DH spot came up in the lineup, inserting his regular DH in the lineup at that point. He apparently figured this gave him a very small advantage of changing his mind depending on how the top half of the first inning unfolded ... with Baltimore coming to bat in the bottom half of the inning tied 0-0, down a run or two, or facing a lopsided score if the opposing team put a lot of runs on the board.
This tactic was particularly absurd in a couple of games where the next-game starting pitcher he put in the DH spot wasn't even in the ballpark that day -- having traveled ahead of the team to a road game in another city.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.