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I'm a Sox fan, and I'm content with the DH rule as it stands.
The Buchholz incident was a sheer fluke. Look at how many players run the bases daily and don't get injury. Even pitchers. Luckily for Boston, at least Buchholz won't miss a start - though might be pushed back a few days. Better than what happened to Victor or Pedroia.
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Originally Posted by Fred314X
I'm in full agreement with your first statement...but not the second. Absolutely; the playing field should be evened. But it should be evened by eliminating the DH altogether. Pitchers in both leagues came up to the plate for more than a century; why is it suddenly "not good for the game" to allow them to continue doing so?
Thank you two for being so reasonable. Especially Lowerdeck for showing some class in the face of adversity.
"I just think it's time the NL joined the 21st century," Steinbrenner said in a telephone interview. "The AL, the minors, colleges, high schools, they all have DHs.
"Truthfully, the NL owners should be concerned with it, even with the practice their pitchers get doing it. You don't need to lose your best pitcher. The pitcher has enough work to do. It's something Bud (Selig) needs to address and he needs to address it soon. Don't give me that traditionalist crap.
"We go to these NL cities, draw great crowds and we end up losing one of our best pitchers. I'm not happy."
I've never been a fan of interleague play anyway, but it's definitely here to stay. But if the game is in the NL home park it should be played by NL rules.
I'm more concerned with what's going on in San Francisco, damn. what is it about that place, Swifer on Friday, Buccholz on Saturday and VMart on Sunday? I'm glad it's not a 4-gamer.
Ok, so let's just have an Outfielder pitch 1 inning of every game. How's that sound? Even it out a little bit? Let's start every baseball game with an Outfielder pitching the first inning.
It's already evened out. At least in the NL. In the NL each player helps his team to score runs and prevent the other team from doing so.
In the AL, 8 players help their team to score runs and prevent the other team from scoring. 1 player, the DH, helps his team to score while doing nothing to prevent the other team from scoring and 1 player, the pitcher, helps to prevent the other team from scoring but does nothing to help his team score.
That makes no sense to me.
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Originally Posted by Kid Cann
So, now I'm sitting in $50 seats watching Scott Baker swing a bat
Well, if I'm stuck in the seat next to you watching Adam Dunn or Brad Hawpe wear a glove it's only fair.
If you take the DH to it's logical conclusion, based on your 'I don't want to watch pitchers hit' argument, then we'd never watch bad hitters hit, we'd never watch bad fielders field and we'd never watch slow guys run.
So, Babe Ruth would have come up to bat. If he got on base, someone would pinch run for him and he'd sit on the bench while the Yankees were pitching. I can't imagine that that is better for baseball.
AL teams are at a distinct disadvantage at NL parks and during interleague play in general. They lose an important bat and have to change their lineups and defensive formula. Pitchers in the AL usually don't have experience running bases and hitting in the big leagues, or have very little recent experience. NL teams have a big advantage when at home, due to the disruption to the AL team's game plan, and then when they go on the road to the AL team parks, they get an extra bat in the lineup and their starters can go longer.
NL teams are at a distinct disadvantage when playing in AL parks. They don't keep aging, glorified slowpitch softball players with an inability to play the field on their rosters, so a pretty mediocre hitter often ends up DHing for NL teams in those games.
You could have saved yourself a lot of typing by just stating it's unfair because AL teams have to play baseball. You know, the game where actual strategy is involved. Where a manager's decision whether to remove the pitcher is dictated by not only his performance and batter matchups late in the game, but also situations where the pitcher bats with the opportunity to knock in runs. It's called real baseball.
I have a better idea....ditch the DH altogether. I'm sick of hearing whining from AL clubs about pitchers having to bat. What about in the AL parks when the AL team can use its full-time DH, and the NL team has to use a bench player?
Making pitchers bat in interleague games in NL parks is consistent with what happens in the World Series. And while I'm an NL fan and don't care for the DH, I think the rule difference between the leagues gives each league its own identity and, therefore, adds an interesting twist to the game.
I think Hank Steinbrenner's commentary was interesting, mainly for the way he carefully picks and chooses according to what he wants. I mean, they use metal bats in college baseball, do they not? Yet you didn't hear him insist that metal bats would propel major league baseball into the 21st century.
You could have saved yourself a lot of typing by just stating it's unfair because AL teams have to play baseball. You know, the game where actual strategy is involved. Where a manager's decision whether to remove the pitcher is dictated by not only his performance and batter matchups late in the game, but also situations where the pitcher bats with the opportunity to knock in runs. It's called real baseball.
Yeah, OK....try looking at the records of NL and AL teams in interleague play and the world series overall, and the All Star Game as of late.
Often (and up until a few days ago) the top 3 AL East teams have better records than the entire NL.
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