COMMENTARY : National League needs to put DH in game
Posted on Friday, July 4, 2008
DALLAS — The annual pummeling of the National League in interleague play has stopped. All that is left is the annual pummeling of the National League in the All-Star Game on July 15.
The American League leads the National League by a 149-102 margin in interleague play with one game remaining. It’s the fifth consecutive year the AL has held the edge and the most one-sided margin other than the AL’s 154-98 advantage two years ago.
The National League hasn’t won an All-Star Game since 1996. The streak used to serve merely as an embarrassment. As long as it continues, it means the AL team gets to start the World Series at home and host a potential Game 7.
So if the National League wants to get up to speed, one significant change needs to be made.
It’s time for the National League to adopt the designated hitter rule.
There is no good reason for the NL to be clinging to the past, and other than the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Micah Owings, there’s just nothing pretty about watching pitchers try to hit.
When you add the DH to the game, you increase run production. That in itself increases attendance. That increases revenues and provides the funds to go out and better your team, whether it’s through spending on free agents, foreign scouting or player development.
The DH rule allows teams to save their players. Texas Rangers Manager Ron Washington has gotten maximum value out of Milton Bradley this season. Bradley suffered a knee injury in the final week of 2007 while playing for the San Diego Padres.
Had he remained a Padre, he probably wouldn’t have been a regular in the lineup until mid-May because of the wear and tear of playing the outfield every day. With the Rangers, Bradley has served as the DH 51 times and is bound to be an All-Star for the first time with his league-leading on-base production.
The New York Yankees’ Hideki Matsui is in a similar situation coming back from last year’s knee injury. He’s no longer an outfield regular, but his bat is in the lineup almost daily, thanks to serving as DH for 43 games.
Los Angeles Angels Manager Mike Scioscia is able to give Vladimir Guerrero regular breaks to keep his bat in the lineup and his legs fresh. He has been DH 20 times this season.
Not having the DH limits the players National League teams can even pursue in free agency. Let’s face it: Jim Thome still was a productive hitter for the Philadelphia Phillies in 2004 before injuries limited him in 2005.
Serving primarily as DH for the Chicago White Sox, he prolonged his career to the point that his 523 career home runs put him in the Hall of Fame discussion. He probably could not have done that by finishing his career in the National League.
For the most part in the modern game, “small ball” has become smallminded. I don’t have any problems with teams bunting runners over to third base in the eighth inning of a tie game. Makes sense.
Bunting in the first four or five innings to try to scratch out a run ? Nonsense.
Small ball made sense when NL teams played in Cincinnati’s Riverfront Stadium, Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Stadium, Houston’s cavernous Astrodome, San Francisco’s Candlestick Park, Philadelphia’s Veterans Stadium and the old Busch Stadium in St. Louis.
Those have all been replaced by parks that favor hitters and home runs. There’s no reason for NL teams to play a game no longer suited to their surroundings.
The AL and NL don’t have separate offices anymore. They don’t have separate umpiring crews with their own rules anymore. And interleague play means they no longer maintain separate schedules.
The NL needs to quit embarrassing itself. The league nearly adopted the DH rule in 1970 s when the AL did. It lost by a 6-4 vote when Phillies owner Ruly Carpenter could not be located (he was fishing ) and Pirates owner John Galbreath had instructed his representatives to vote the way the Phillies did.
It’s time to retire that “Gone Fishin’” sign and join the 21 st century.
Think of the trees that can be spared, making all of those useless pitchers’ bats.
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
