I've never been keen on it, but not as intolerant of it as I am of the designated hitter rule. With his usual acuity, Tim Marchman lays out three bad reasons and one very good reason for hating it.
I may feel differently if the Mets sweep the Yanks this weekend. I also take comfort in seeing that the Braves will be at Fenway.
Update: Schadenfreude supports my opposition to the DH (click on "comments" below), but Twiffer rehashes his old and unpersuasive argument for it (see our dialogue here - unfortunately, this is from the time when Blogger Beta was labeling all comments "anonymous").
The DH is, indeed, an abomination, a sop to people who have the game on their TV's but don't actually watch it.
ReplyDeleteoh, dear god schad. who in their right mind wants to watch pitchers hit? as for the "strategy", i've yet to figure out why it's enjoyable to force your manager to decide whether to lift a guy who's pitching well on the chance they might actually get a hit in his slot.
ReplyDeleteinterleague play, eh, i tend to ignore it. i don't loathe it; it's more an irritant. particluarly as the red sox "natural" rival is apparently the braves. yes, i know why they decided that, but it's still stupid.
Philistine.
ReplyDeleteThe whole point is that the guys who hit also have to field and vice versa (you have to earn the right to hit/pitch/whatever). In other words, in order to play baseball, one should be a baseball player. This includes various types of running, throwing and hitting (you know, like in other sports).
you earn the right to hit by being skilled enough to hit major league pitching. i'm sorry, but i don't think specialization is a bad thing.
ReplyDeletewe all know that, given the choice between between putting a guy who can hit, but not field so well and a guy who can field, but not hit so well in the lineup, the bat is going to win. it just is. everyone complains on how the DH allows guys who are poor fielders to have jobs, while forgetting that it also allows guys who are great fielders, but poor fielders to have jobs too. think doug mientkiewicz would be playing first for the yankees, if not for the DH? with the DH, you get better offense, better defense and better pitching. you lose, what? another situation for a manager to fuck the game up?
i can't for the life of me figure out what the benefit of letting pitchers hit is. "purity of the game" is bullshit; baseball has never been pure. it's as dirty as any other pro sport (with, perhaps, the exception of boxing).
a mitigating factor may be that a) i've been a red sox fan my whole life and b) the DH rule was passed 3 years before i was born. although, given the fact that it's older than i am, it's more of a wonder that people still argue about the damn thing.