I just couldn’t resist using a play on words from the Hardcore Legend fan post.
Lboros you can delete this if you want.

My pitchers are running the bases!! Oh the humanity!!

I don’t see his point.

I wasn’t aware that the 1800s were only 35 years ago. Where does the time go?

So maybe some NL league owner needs to rail on how AL rules hurts their hitters next time they get a HBP in a road intraleague game. This kind of stuff can cut both ways. Unfortunately, you can’t fight ignorance with more ignorance. They’re too ignorant to get the point.

On the bright side, Hank, Carl Pavano might be ready to throw off the mound again soon.

I still wonder after all these years….was Marge Schott secretly married to George for a short time and the possible mother of Hank?

Brian Bruney still wonders what a lisfranc joint is!

I like the fact the American League has the DH, but I love the fact that the National League does not! I am not that old (48) but I remember when there were a lot of differances between the two leagues. The National League had turf. American had the old ball parks. The Umps etc, but now the differances have narrowed down. So the DH is the big differance. So let them keep it!

Can hit too.

I’m sort of surprised that Hank didn’t fault Wang for getting on base in the first place.

but I’ve come to like the DH over the last few years. How often do we really care whether our pitchers can hit? That’s rarely a concern when you’re discussing their value (although Nate Silver had a nice piece on it about a week ago). Pitchers have become so specialized that I’d rather see someone whose specialization is hitting in my lineup than say Wellemeyer (who can’t bunt to save his life). Not to mention it opens up some opportunities in terms of roster construction for your defensively challenged mashers.

I guess I don’t buy the whole violation of tradition argument—which seems to be the only anti-DH critique I’ve heard.

Would you rather there be less strategy? AL managers put out a lineup then watch their guys hit that is pretty much it…...... I love pitchers hitting, I would quit watching baseball if they put a DH in the NL.

One more thing AL must not have very athletic pitchers if they cant run the bases one time without getting injured…. Our pitchers do anything we ask PH, run the bases if they asked a pitcher to play first base I am sure they would give their all and I havent seen one get hurt yet from it yet. Hank should get a LIFE!

In the 1930’s, with attendance flagging due to The Great Depression, it was the N.L. who proposed the DH (in theory, to increase scoring and consequently attendance), yet it was the A.L. who refused.

Another tidbit, TLR has said that both leagues should be the same, with the DH in both or neither.

Stop interleague play! Also you could have the DH used in all interleague games. I hate interleague play because, well, the Yanks and Red Sox can’t play each other during interleague play. Ok, not really, I just hate it . I am a traditionalist in this regard.

People have said that pitchers should bat, but at the same time, David Ortiz needs to get a glove and romp around first base. He’s become pretty specialized, as well (aside from his injury)

always have been. always will be.

two great examples of it’s positives have already been discussed. not having to pull a reliever for a PH. and having a guy like Ortiz in the line up who really doesn’t have a defensive position to play.

little hank does have a point. his pitchers shouldn’t have to hit. i think if they keep this farce inter league BS going, the games played in NL parks should have the option of using the DH. so the AL teams wouldn’t have to have their pitchers hit if they didn’t want to. and the NL could as well.

But most of them have been stated already in this thread. I’m on the anti-DH side.

I’d like to add that I think part of the specialization of pitchers is probably driven by the DH rule—that is, pitchers are becoming worse hitters because they know that at any given time in their career, there is a 50% chance (well, not really, but you know what I mean) that they’ll end up on an AL team. So what’s the motivation to become a truly talented hitter? When your contract runs out, some AL team will pay you the same or more money than an NL team based SOLELY on your pitching ability. As a result, NL teams, in order to compete for talented pitchers, have to pay based solely on pitching talent as well. Why bother with hitting? It’s not paying the bills, regardless of what league you’re in.

And, of course, having half the pitchers in baseball playing in the AL also hurts pitchers’ hitting—imagine a college pitcher who also DHs. He comes up in the Royals organization, plays there for many years, and then signs with the Pirates. This guy who once could handle a stick hasn’t seriously practiced hitting in 6 years, and now he’s completely worthless with the wood. And another pitcher with a potentially potent bat is ruined by the DH rule.

Look, I like the non-DH league mainly because it encourages having a deeper, more talented bench. A team in the AL with a great lineup, crappy bench, and some good luck with injuries can have a fantastic season. No hitting substitutions ever need be made! You can just give the starters an occaisional day off and let your bench full of scrubs play in blow-outs and the like. That crappy bench hits an NL team a little harder. Maybe a lot harder.

But really, I just think that it should be the same in both leagues, one way or the other. The rule really does give the AL an advantage, most immediately in interleague games—a game in the NL park means the AL team puts a starter on the bench, giving them that extra bench stength. A game in the AL park means that the NL team has to start a bench player. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the NL bench guy is going to be worse than almost every AL DH. There are other ways it causes imbalance between the leagues, but that’s been debated at length already.

One way or the other. The imbalance is stupid.

to me, the argument against the DH is that it rewards one-dimensionality without exacting any cost. in nearly every instance, one-dimensionality comes at a price. if you have a guy who’s really good at only one aspect of the game — getting out lefties, running the bases, fielding, slugging homers, what have you - then you have to pay the cost of that guy’s weaknesses elsewhere. you have to decide if Adam Everett’s great glove is worth the cost of his terrible bat, or if Willy Taveras’s speed is worth his weak arm and his lack of power. and if you’re in the NL, you have to decide if Adam Dunn’s bat is worth the cost of his glove. the DH artificially gives teams a free pass in one instance, allowing them to add a great bat without the corresponding tradeoff.

making sound judgments regarding those tradeoffs is an important part of roster management and game-day management — but where the DH is concerned, you get a free pass and don’t have to make the judgment. to me it is cheap and gimmicky. i see the other side of the argument, and i can understand why people like the DH - without it we might not get to see as much of David Ortiz or Frank Thomas, etc etc. but i’m still agin’ it. . . .

If I’m not mistaken Its point is to make the game “more entertaining” by replacing a bat that does not tend to be very good with a better one. I am all in favor of more entertaining games, but the problem with the DH is that it is a fundamental change. It is not the game of baseball that was played 50 years ago; it is completely different. A better example of a change (in my opinion) is the moving up of fences, allowing for more home runs—more entertaining, same game

I agree that the DH is about making the game more entertaining, but is it really?

Take this example. What’s more entertaining, David Ortiz knocking in a run, or Kyle Lohse knocking in a run? Sure the results the same, but how much more thrilling is the hit that isn’t supposed to come versus the one that’s expected? I’m not trying to say that I’d rather have Lohse up there hitting over Ortiz, it’s just in that golden moment where Lohse produces would be a far more entertaining event than Ortiz doing the same thing.

Also, I agree with all the posters who said there is no difference in the theory of designated runners and designated hitters or designated anything-else. (I’m not saying that designated hitters leads to any slopes, no matter how slippery, just that in theory it seems to be the same). A team is using the skill of one player in the place of another without any apparent cost to the team.

Sid Ponson has been signed by them. Again!

Open pool on how long it takes him to take a swing at Giambi (or vice versa).