Long Live the Designated Hitter
National Review,
by
David Harsanyi
Original Article
Posted By: Pluperfect,
6/26/2020 4:40:50 AM
Major League Baseball is moving toward a 60-game 2020 season. For the first time in history, the designated-hitter rule will be implemented in both the American and the National Leagues.
This is fantastic news for anyone who loves baseball and America, and not simply because the nation will be treated to more home runs but because we will no longer witness professional athletes clumsily swiping at balls or sticking out their bats and praying to make contact.
It’s not just about offense. Yes, historically the American League scores more runs per game than the National League — in fact, it has every season since 1973, when the DH was first implemented.
Reply 1 - Posted by:
DaddyO 6/26/2020 6:03:35 AM (No. 457488)
All strategy will be eliminated in order to hit a few more home runs, and we're supposed to be happy about it.
11 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
RCFLyer98 6/26/2020 6:15:30 AM (No. 457494)
One reason I prefer the National League . . . no designated hitter. The pitcher is a player in the game, all players have a turn at the plate, or the way it should be. IMHO, of course.
23 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
Ming 6/26/2020 7:31:47 AM (No. 457533)
Just think what would have happened if baseball had the DH when Ruth was a pitcher.
7 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
Ming 6/26/2020 7:34:28 AM (No. 457534)
I forgot to add: And why don't they introduce aluminum bats and make the total degeneration of the league complete.
7 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
planetgeo 6/26/2020 7:38:36 AM (No. 457537)
I guess I'm in the minority then. I would like baseball a lot better if I could see the best hitters hitting and the best fielders fielding at all times. In other words, a platoon strategy with an offense and defense that is composed of the best players at each. Exactly why would you want to watch lousy batters or lousy fielders? Most pitchers are an automatic out at the plate and some great home run hitters are clumsy, error-prone fielders. Why force them to do that? Why force us to watch that?
3 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
Subsuburban 6/26/2020 8:15:10 AM (No. 457573)
Our nation's future is at stake, and this is what the c___servatives at National Review deem important? No wonder their readership has dwindled into insignificance.
7 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
LtE126 6/26/2020 9:30:30 AM (No. 457679)
Shock, a skinsoft article by a National Review writer. I'm AL all the way (White Sox) but don't like the DH, never have. It's the reason AL pitchers can give up 3 in the first, 2 in the second and 2 in the fourth and pitch 'till the sixth or seventh. It takes the manager out of the game, they don't have to use their bench as much. It's a player's union thing, it creates more jobs.
1 person likes this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
LtE126 6/26/2020 9:35:53 AM (No. 457691)
Sorry, forgot this...it also cuts down on throwing at batters because that pitcher has to go up there and hit. But then, that takes away the players policing themselves...I mean we don't want that do we?
It's like the NHL, put another ref on the ice, make everyone wear shields, if you start a fight with a shield it's a game misconduct, so stick fouls go way up...they know how the purists would react by eliminating fighting, so make the penalties so severe it does it without saying it.
All sports are over officiated
3 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
fayebeck 6/26/2020 10:11:32 AM (No. 457744)
#6 explain how you're "forced" to watch a ball game? As a past lover of baseball I can think of nothing the powers that be have done to "improve" the game in the past 50 years. Take the intentional walk. Pitcher is no longer required to throw four pitches. Speed up the game. How about when a home run is hit, why not ban the hitter from trotting around the bases and doing "cute" things.
1 person likes this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
Ebenezer 6/26/2020 11:11:49 AM (No. 457846)
Everything in baseball now seems to be a home run or a strikeout, so we have high-scoring games that last four hours. There were plenty of home runs when I was a kid growing up in the '70s, but there were also pitchers' duels, hit-and-run, stolen bases, and other things that seem to have disappeared. Oh, and most games only took a little over two hours. Today's game isn't the one I knew and loved as a kid.
1 person likes this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
stablemoney 6/26/2020 11:36:28 AM (No. 457902)
Why not just watch the highlights of the game? Why watch the futility and failures of missed swings, pitcher's wiping off sweat, trips to the mound? Don't waste your time. As for the 60 game season, no. No sports allowed for any reason until the social distancing and mask rules are lifted, along with bringing the politician's extra legal states of emergency to a date of closure. We cannot allow forever states of emergency power.
0 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
MDConservative 6/26/2020 11:55:33 AM (No. 457941)
The paying customers want offense, speedy games and cold beer. Television wants a predictable broadcast package. These rules give them some of both.
Every sport has perverted its rules since Doubleday, Naismith and Pudge Heffelfinger strode the land. How about taking away the mound and creating a pitcher's zone between 45 and 51 feet like 1869's rules prescribe? At least they kept the bases at 90 feet. That newfangled 60 foot pitching thing ruined the game!
0 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
DVC 6/26/2020 12:25:08 PM (No. 458003)
Don't bother having athletes who are well rounded, because everyone knows "pitchers can't hit".
There was this guy, seems like his name was Ruth, years ago who was a pitcher, and I hear he was also a pretty good hitter, too.
Always shortcutting, always taking the lazy, easy way out. Humans are meant to be broadly capable, skilled in many things, specialization is for insects.
(my apologies to Robert Heinlein, who I borrowed that last phrase from)
3 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
kono 6/26/2020 2:31:01 PM (No. 458166)
Over-specialization deprives sports of the versatility that makes for the most-impressive stars, IMO. And that's what the DH represents in baseball - guys who have only half a game. I'm not sure which is worse, though -- a league whose pitchers can't hit because owners care only about their pitching performance, or a league whose pitchers can't hit because they never have to try.
0 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
caljeepgirl 6/26/2020 4:18:48 PM (No. 458253)
Yep, anti-DH all the way! One of the many joys of baseball is the seemingly endless variety of plays that can occur when least expected!! I frickin' love it when the pitcher gets a clinch hit, or the lowliest fielder makes an 'impossible' catch!
2 people like this.
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