Hey, all you hardcore Buhlites…if you want to on the side of Bruce Jenkins, go ahead.
It’s a real shame that so many American League pitchers have been denied a chance to hit. As much as A’s fans enjoyed the pure athletic ability of Vida Blue, Mike Norris, Rick Langford and Dave Stewart over the years, they could have seen so much more. Given a reason to work on their hitting, they all would have responded professionally. Or maybe not, in a case or two. You learn something there, too.
“But it’s an age of specialization,” people say. On what basis? There are no designated runners or fielders. Specialization is an NFL team employing different defensive units on four consecutive plays. Specialization was forced upon the American League when the DH arrived in 1973, but it never was warranted. Without question, we’ve witnessed golden DH moments from the likes of Tony Oliva, Orlando Cepeda, Harold Baines, Edgar Martinez, David Ortiz, but I invariably ask myself, why? In what brand of league does a player not bat for himself? Have we become a generation of elitist pipe-smokers, outraged at the sight of an athlete’s vulnerability? “Fetch me my Thoreau, Jeeves. Barry Zito is batting.”
The “different set of rules” argument gets tiresome, as well. Thank goodness the National League has a traditional set of rules, and the disparity doesn’t harm the game in the slightest. It’s still the same game. Different rules would be three balls for a walk, or you start out by running to third.
So it’s not always a good show. Neither was Willie McCovey playing left field, or the 1968 Detroit Tigers playing Mickey Stanley (an outfielder) at shortstop because they were fed up with Ray Oyler’s hitting. Baseball is, by nature, a display of human frailty. It is notoriously, famously and gloriously a game of failure. As I discovered with the youth of my neighborhood, it’s a most pleasurable way to go.
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1. The Most Interesting Man In The World Posted: June 12, 2009 at 12:56 PM (#3215914)Why not argue about religion instead?
A Rick Langford sighting! Awesome. One of my first favoritest pitchers. I wonder if Jenkins threw him in because he didn't want to pair "athletic" with only black pitchers. Also, A's fans did get to see Vida Blue hit.
edit: Vida had a .104 batting average in 618 life time at bats. Oof.
Can you fill us in as to some of them?
I agree with #7-- keep the DH in the AL, none in the NL, play by the home team's rules in interleague, and everyone stays happy.
Well, No. 7 would rather you elminated those interleague games entirely, as would I.
But yes, I also prefer the no-DH in the NL and DH in the AL set-up.
No one pays big money to watch Carlos Zambrano swing the bat.
Maybe, but I don't think we need to have to substitutes to do things for players because we're not paying money to see it. No one wants to see Jason Giambi run the bases, but Rajai Davis doesn't get to be a designated runner.
Is this the 3 Dot Lounge guy? If you want to know my DH position read one of the other threads on this topic. There probably was one the first interleague weekend. It's on the first of the 15 pages. I'm not a longerthreader.
Yep.
Off the top of my head:
- I don't like watching terrible hitters hit.
- I don't like seeing pitchers yanked in the middle innings because they're coming to bat in the middle of a rally.
- I don't like seeing David Ortiz or Travis Hafner in the field.
- I like seeing great hitters hang around even when they can't play the field.
- I don't like seeing a guy like Carlos Zambrano get hurt running the bases.
There are reasonable counter-arguments to all of these. I could defend either side of the argument, but in the end I just enjoy AL baseball more.
Like I said, we might as well argue about religion.
A switch-hitting MVP -- how often do you see that?
Frankie Frisch, Mickey Mantle, Maury Wills, Willie McGee, Ken Caminiti, Terry Pendleton, Chipper Jones, and Jimmy Rollins say hi. Pete Rose says, "I bet there are 9 others, including myself."
Yeah, what a disaster that was. The Tigers barely even won the World Series!
I've heard people say this, but it just makes no sense to me. It's a competitive baseball game, not a competition, why would we make it so that the teams play by the road team's rules? I don't know, maybe it's just as arbitrary to go by the home team's rules, but at least that's customary. And it's not like getting the chance to see a game with the other league's rules is some exotic opportunity.
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