I’d much rather have a designated hitter than a designated sitter. The National League is the only league left where pitchers bat. While I’m of a younger generation, I consider myself a big time historical baseball aficionado. I know there are still some purists out there, but after 40 years, the DH has truly been woven into the fabric of the game. Aside from the “entertainment value” of Bartolo Colon flailing around, there’s no point to it.
I say this coming from the perspective of a New York Yankees fan, American League baseball fan and as someone who has known nothing but the DH in the AL growing up. To anyone who talks about the “tradition of the game,” I’ve got news for you.
If baseball stuck to tradition Chien-Ming Wang would’ve never gotten hurt running the bases. Know how I know how? Had baseball stuck to tradition and never installed inter-league play, American and National League teams wouldn’t meet until the World Series in October and hence Wang never would’ve been running the bases because the Yankees wouldn’t have been playing in Houston in 2008, but maybe in Arlington, against a team in their own league!
Could Wang have gotten hurt as easily running sprints in the outfield warming up? Possibly. Say what you will of how fluky the injury was or how asinine it is that anybody would come up lame like that just simply running the bases, but the point is Wang should’ve never been on the bases to begin with.
I can understand the strategy aspect of the NL game with the pitcher batting. In addition, I like the fact that a pitcher has to face the music at the plate if he starts becoming a headhunter on the bump. I’m not saying that one has to necessarily favor a power game over a speed game. Yet I don’t understand the entertainment value of watching a pitcher bat in the third inning with bases loaded and two outs.
One could even argue in a close game in the AL, the manager of the team with the lead has to make more of a decision strategically. Do I leave my starter in to face the power hitting DH or do I go to my pen or do I go to my pen because there’s basically no easy automatic outs in the lineup? In the NL if I’m a manager with the lead and the pitcher comes up, there’s no way my starter is coming out, so I sit there and say, “OK go strike ’em out kid!”
There are so many sports which have massive specialization and substitutions, that it surprises me to this day there’s still an outcry from traditionalists about the DH. Plus, with pitching dominating the sport at levels not seen since the early 1990’s, teams need more hitters not less.
Just think about how many careers have been extended via the DH. Edgar Martinez, Harold Baines, Eddie Murray, Chilli Davis, Paul Molitor, George Brett, Carl Yastrzemski, Hideki Matsui, David Ortiz and Alex Rodriguez. Whether for some extra pop or to use it as a resting spot, having a DH is just better overall for the sport.
It just doesn’t make sense to have a pennant race or the most critical games of the year be decided by a different set of rules. If one doesn’t go to games to watch a hitter pitch, then why would one want to go and watch a pitcher hit?
