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To: MinorityRepublican

Why not just go to 50 man teams with completely separate offense and defense like football? That way you could have the 9 best hitters not being bothered with how good they can catch and throw while the best fielders too. The quality of the game would increase greatly. Then you can add designated runners so the hitters would only have to run to first and then be replaced by specialists.


50 posted on 01/24/2016 1:16:08 PM PST by KarlInOhio (CNBC = Clowns Neutered By Cruz)
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To: KarlInOhio
The idea of the designated runner was actually tried. The name: collegiate track star Herb Washington, working as a sportscaster in Michigan after his graduation when he got a call to become a baseball player. The team: The 1974 Oakland Athletics. The results:

* Washington held out for a no-cut contract and got it. ($40,000 for the season; this, of course, was a year before Andy Messersmith would pitch without a contract and get himself ruled a free agent after the season, ending the reserve era.)

* Because his face was too fine to grow a full mustache, Washington penciled in a believable one with an eyebrow pencil to collect Charlie Finley's once-fabled mustache bonus.

* Washington was 1-for-5 in his first five stolen base attempts.

* Milwaukee first baseman George Scott almost fooled him with the hidden ball trick, telling Washington he needed to step off the pad so Scott could clean the pad---but Washington saw the ball in Scott's mitt and wasn't fooled, for once.

* Near season's end, manager Alvin Dark offered Washington his first chance to pinch-hit---against Nolan Ryan. (Washington demurred, saying he hadn't hit all year and it was foolish to start now. What he probably wanted to say: Are you nuts?!?)

* With the A's down a run in the ninth in Game Two of the 1974 World Series, Washington was sent out to pinch run . .. and was picked off. (It was the A's only loss in that Series; Washington didn't show up in any of the other games.)

* Washington was cut in May 1974 after thirteen games with only two thefts. Said A's captain Sal Bando when Washington was cut: "I'd feel sorry for him---if he was a player."

* There was a happy postscript: Washington eventually became a successful McDonald's franchiser, and has worked for the Federal Reserve Bank in New York (including a stint as its director), while marrying and raising two children; his son, Terrell, is now the general manager for Washington's franchising concern.

55 posted on 01/24/2016 1:42:34 PM PST by BluesDuke (If the blues had a baby and named it rock and roll, the blues should have had an abortion . . .)
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You know what I dislike about the DH? The name. BION I never notice the strategic effect or the effect on offense. It sounds clunky, especially out of a PA announcer's mouth. If only the International League had come up with a better name for it at the end of the '60s...

ff

76 posted on 01/26/2016 5:08:52 AM PST by foreverfree
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