Saw a story in the Statesman this morning above the box scores and to the left of the standing and today's pitching matchups that I hope isn't true. The story was titled "Is the DH headed for the NL, too?" My reaction is I hope not and I hope that the American League would dump it. However, I think the story might be right.
As a staunch National League fan, I truly enjoy the nuances of having to double switch, pinch hit, and work your lineup around that hole in the order. I realize I may be in the minority, but bet in ideal world I could convince the American League owners to get rid of it. They added the DH in 1973 to spruce up offense. Today I could probably convince many of those owners that by switching back to the old rules, I could save their clubs around $10 million dollars in payroll. That is about what the average DH makes. An extra pinch hitter on the National League roster wouldn't come close to it.
And that $10 million salary is exactly why the DH won't leave baseball. The players union – which is the most powerful union period – would never allow it. They always will negotiate to protect current major leaguers. If they have to give things back it will be for players that aren't in the system yet. So if baseball wants uniform rules between the leagues, they'll have to go DH in both leagues. Baseball wanted the same number of teams in both leagues and the same number of teams in all six divisions. Houston left a six team NL Central and moved in to the AL West that had just four teams prior. Now there are 15 teams in each league and five teams in all six of the divisions. With this we have at least one interleague game every day.
As a traditionalist, I don't like it. Never have liked inter-league. For every exciting series between "rivals" there are five or six series that have no meaning. I thought the All-Star game and World Series were more special when the leagues didn't mix. I would rather see an extra series against another National League team than have to play one against an AL team. And that speaks nothing of fairness. The inter-league games really unbalance the schedule. Some will get easy games and others hard. I've always thought baseball was about the long haul that things will even out.
But baseball won't listen to me. I think it is a matter of time before we have standard rules. The leagues used to be operated separately. Separate offices. Separate presidents. Even some separate rules. The DH was one. The American League used a to have a curfew of 1 a.m. No new inning could start after that, unless it was the last scheduled game between the two teams in that city that season. The National League never had a curfew. Because most teams only make one trip to a city now, the curfew rule in the AL is no more. Now MLB is one entity. Bet that the rules will be the same in the not too distant future.
A couple of other things I'd like to see…..
Players union boss Marvin Miller in the Hall of Fame. No one did more to change the game. Whether you like it or not, he had a great effect on the game and deserves to be in.
And all the international players need to be in the June free agent draft. The NBA made the move many years ago. Wonder if with all of the Cuban players defecting they will change the format. I think they should. If they idea is to be fair the rich clubs shouldn't have a total advantage when it comes to getting high profile international talent.
