MLB: DH or Not?

NEW YORK – Yankees ace Chien-Ming Wang is expected to be sidelined until at least September after injuring his foot running the bases, prompting club co-chairman Hank Steinbrenner to chastise the National League for playing without a designated hitter.

An examination in New York on Monday showed Wang partially tore a tendon and sprained his right foot Sunday during the Yankees’ 13-0 interleague win at Houston. “My only message is simple. The National League needs to join the 21st century,” Steinbrenner said in Tampa, Fla. “They need to grow up and join the 21st century.
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My thoughts...do away with the DH. I think all players should have to bat and take the field, including pitchers. If they're going to use the DH though, it should be used by both leagues, not just one. It's stupid for one league to play by one set of rules while the other does not. I equate it to if the NFL came out with a rule that said you can't rush the QB, but the rule is only in effect for the AFC teams.

I agree. I would like to know who was the commissioner that allowed the AL to implement the DH rule. I could just see one of the leagues trying that today. I believe it was instituted in 1973. At that time, pitching was dominant in the AL and many felt the game had become boring. I think the AL had a composite batting average of .220 or something like that. So yeah, when they decided to go with the DH, it at least made some sense back then. But in today's world, there is plenty of offense to go around and there is no reason for it. I could have put this in the 'pet peeve' section, but when you have a NL player who has gotten so old and out of shape that he is a liability in the field but still has a pop in his bat, and all he has to do is go to the AL and he's a productive player again, it irks me.

Regarding ol' Hank, what a whiney-ass baby. I hope he realizes that every time a National League team plays at his field, the Yankees have an advantage of their own. I would argue that the AL teams have a bigger advantage when they play at home than the NL teams at their home fields.

And I realize that he is currently in the minors, but I think Dontrelle Willis is a perfect example of someone who went to the AL even though he can actually win games with his bat. Now, unless he gets traded back, we will never see him swing a bat again. Overall though, I agree with what you said. I would rather do away with it altogether but even having it in both leagues would be better than this.

And even though I don't like his team, nobody could ever convince me Carlos Zambrano doesn't know how to swing the stick! Heck, I still remember Rick Sutcliffe hitting a homer in the '84 NLCS. How exciting!

Bowie Kuhn was the Commissioner of baseball then. I thought it was, but googled it to double check. My mind is filled with useless crap like that.

Oh yeah, that's right. Bowie.

Here's another side to that. Proponents of the DH say in general pitchers can't hit. That's true, but a lot of that is because they stop worrying about their hitting skills once they realize they have a shot at making it to the majors. Most really good high school pitchers are also their school's best hitter. They are great atheletes before they are great pitchers. But if you get signed to a minor league contract and know there is about a 50% chance you won't be hitting at all if you make it to the major league level, you lose a lot of motivation to practice those skills. An example - another member of Cincy's favorite team (heh heh), Carlos Marmol, came up as a catcher. He was converted to a pitcher (how that happened I don't know), and struggled as a starting pitcher in 2005, his first year in the majors. But one asset to his game is he could swing the bat. It's just another facet of the game that increases the amount of strategy involved, and hence makes it more exciting.

Look at Rick Ankiel too. The guy started off pretty decent as a pitcher, then for whatever reason lost it for several years, gave up pitching, then converted to the outfield and actually swings a pretty good stick!

I also seem to remember there was some guy named Babe a long time ago that started off as a pitcher but was converted to the outfield. I wonder how that ever worked out?

Most pitchers can hit.. but from about High School (or earlier) on coaches want to protect them so they never let them do anything but pitch. I remember my brother pitching when he was in HS and the coach wouldn't let him hit because he didn't want to risk losing his ace. Never mind he could actually hit.. he was too valuable every however many starts they rotated.

oh.. almost forgot.. i don't care either way.. give me a beer in the bleachers and I'm happy..

Do away with the DH. Hate it.