100% agree. The DH rule is the worst thing ever to happen to baseball. I hate it... Always have and I want rid of it completely.
I’ll see your radical and raise it.....
Stop all public funding of private business, including stadiums for professional athletes to perform the circuses.......
And as to the DH rule: I stopped caring way back with the last strike, if they never played another game I would never notice.
Agree. Perhaps equally disruptive is the minimum 3 batter rule for pitchers — also removes strategy and will cause some pitchers to lose their jobs (e.g., left hand specialists). Would increase pace of play somewhat, though.
One of the dozen reasons that it was approved in the first place, was to give aging players with no fielding capability...a chance to linger for two or three additional seasons. Frank Thomas is a great example...for the last ten years of his career, that gave him a chance to play.
For Jim Thome, probably 400 of his home runs were as a DH.
I agree. The DH is bad for baseball. While they’re at it they should all stop trying to play homerun derby. It’s boring to sit a wait for a homerun, that’s not baseball.
Nonsense. DH Rule should be universal. Most people don’t like watching batters make automatic outs. More offense and excitement if instead you have professional batters who can help get runs scored. Players like Edgar Martinez, Victor Martinez, J D Martinez, David Ortiz and Frank Thomas.
Baseball needs action. When balls are put in play, not only do you score more runs, you get great defense. Action! That’s what makes baseball fun.
The so-called strategy of using pinch-hitters for pitchers unnecessarily prematurely depletes your bench. This makes the later innings even more boring.
No.
It’s because they now want to switch pitchers out all the time.
Over the years I've gone from being ambivalent about the DH to being generally in favor of it in the NL. The anti-DH crowd would have a much stronger case to make if pitchers weren't almost universally such awful hitters.
This fixation on the "strategy" of the NL rules is mystifying, too. When did it become a GOOD thing for managers to pull a dominant starting pitcher in the late innings of a close game just because the guy's spot in the lineup was up?
I agree. The designated hitter rule is odd and artificial, and so it should be discarded.
But I’m not against suggestions that will keep baseball from being a snooze-fest. Among these are:
1. Get rid of the new pitcher warm-up. When a new pitcher takes the mound, his first pitch should count.
2. Get rid of the four-pitch intentional walk. If the pitcher wants to intentionally walk a batter, the pitcher should just point to first base. No more of those four dull, wide pitches.
3. Move the pitching mound back a bit. Passes make a football game more exciting. The NFL understands this. Hits make a baseball game more exciting. MLB does not understand this.
I like the DH rule. Nobody wants to see pitchers hit. Is there anything worse than your team having a rally going when the .065 hitting pitcher is up to bat? Even the article mentions there’s only been about 5 pitchers in history who were decent hitters. Besides it’s unfair for AL teams when a key component of their offense can’t hit in games at NL stadiums.
Why that would be PDJT, of course.
He has been designated as Hitler's reincarnation by virtually all of the most reputable news organizations in the world.
Ok, let me clean my eyeglasses and try again....
If. MLB had had a DH when it started, there never would have been a Babe Ruth.
I do not watch professional baseball so I could not care less what is done.
JoMa
Get rid of the DH! I want to see a pitcher nailed in the ribs with an inside pitch in retaliation for the intentional hit he made on an opposing batter......
Get rid of DH.
For sure. The DH has ruined baseball. And instant replay has made the game unwatchable. Technology has improved life on Earth but it has ruined sports. In the end, games are played on a field, court or an ice surface, not on television. IP has taken the humanity out of sport.
I grew up with the Red Sox during the 1970s after the DH rule went into effect and typically the DH would be some over-the-hill overweight ballplayer who would literally waddle up to the plate to take his at-bat. He'd smash the occasional home run but most of the time struck out or grounded out in which the DH wouldn't even bother running it out. Then in the World Series, AL pitchers forced to bat for the first time in years would be so over-matched at the plate.
The game is purer when the pitcher has to take his rightful place in the batter's lineup. It will also force scouts to consider batting ability of pitcher prospects as well. Not a bad thing. Babe Ruth started his career as a pitcher and if they had the DH rule then, we might never have known him as a Home Run king.
IMHO there was a sea change in opinion on this issue in 2016 when former pitcher Ryan Vogelsong was hit in the face with a pitch while batting. He was an aging #5 starter, but teams looked at that and thought “what if that happens to my $100 million ace, and he never recovers?”
The DH is a bastardization of the game, always has been..