We don't show Latin American besboll.

We show the way out of Hugo's Venezuela.

I hope Floridians remember what "I want to defect" means and know how to hide people.

We don't show Latin American besboll.

We show the way out of Hugo's Venezuela.

I hope Floridians remember what "I want to defect" means and know how to hide people.

Heaven? Maybe it was Iowa. But not in early March.

Yes, weren't some of los Cubanos supposed to defect? Was that just wishful thinking on our part?

As Jim says, look at the calendar. They're playing for nothing. You'll know baseball is serious about this when they put the season on hold for a couple of weeks in July to play the games.

Baseball in July is in no wise superior to that in April or inferior to that in October. it's the game that matters, not the calendar.

'The game' doesn't include enforcing pitch counts--that's 100% due to the calendar. Of course, respect for 'the game' was thrown in the toilet 30+ years ago by the American League owners desperate for more offense, which would lead to more ticket sales.

Letting pitchers bat doesn't demonstrate any particular respect for the game, possibly the contrary.

Official Rules:
1.00 Objectives of the Game
1.01
Baseball is a game between two teams of nine players each, under direction of a manager, played on an enclosed field in accordance with these rules, under jurisdiction of one or more umpires.

Yes, there are still nine on the field.

b:

If OJ had grown up a Chicago Cub fan, he would agree with you, and we would see the DH accorded the same respect as the automobile around here.

As the Winter Olympics showed, it's hard to get Americans jazzed about international competition now that the Soviet Union is gone, and when Sports Illustarted is showing America's top baseball player over the course of the past 20 years, Mr. Bonds, has a drug enhancement regimine that could have put the East Germans to shame. That same apathy isn't there for the Latin American countries, or even for those in the Far East, where there's a better parity in size, a major emotional kick if they can knock off each other and/or the U.S. team, and the lack of an upcoming season where most of these same players will be jumbled together on 29 teams playing in U.S. cities.

Now, if a group of players from some other country who weren't in MLB were to go out in November and defeat the World Series champions, that would get the American public's attention, even during football season, and would make them more interested in international competition the next time around.

I grew up a Met fan and as good a hitters as Seaver and Koosman were it was painful to watch.

jim: Of course this is a religious issue. OJ's worship of the evil Red Sox is in conflict with my childhood worship of the glorious Cardinals.

A couple of quick questions:

1. What happens if there are 2 pitchers in the game? St. Herzog pulled off a double switch, I believe on more than one occasion, where he brought in Todd Worrell to face a righty, then put him in left field & brought in Ken Dayley to face a lefty, then brought Worrell back to the mound to face the next righty. I think the DH would prevent such managerial brilliance, and hence it is abomination.

2. It seems to me that if Jim Abbott had ever joined an NL team, the Casey Martin precedent would have forced MLB to allow his team to use a designated hitter, because he was unable to bat and the pitcher-must-bat rule is clearly not fundamental to baseball, as the DH is practically universally used on all levels but in the NL.

John:

Yes, the point isn't that non-fanms watch but that this is great baseball.

b:

You'd do the same in the AL if the point was not to lose the pitcher. Even better was when the Mets and Reds had their big brawl in '86 and the Mets ended up with Gary Carter at 3b, Rusty Staub in the OF and both Orosco and McDowell in the game. Davey Johnson not only alternated LH/RH vs. bastters but switched Staub with whichever pitcher was fieling depending on what handed the batter was. There's nothing brilliant about managing with the poitcher's hitting., Any idiot can do it. It just produces bad hitting.

Abbot wasn't a bad hitter. Neither was Pete Gray.

Can anyone name any professional league anywhere, other than the National League, which does not use the Designated Hitter? Just curious to know where pitchers learn to hit these days.

oj: Nope.
Official Rules: 6.00 The Batter
6.10
"Once the game pitcher is switched from the mound to a defensive position this move shall terminate the Designated Hitter role for the remainder of the game."

b:

Yes, Herzog wasn't using them as DHs either.

There's certainly nothing brilliant about managing by sending an immobile behemoth like Mo Vaughn up to the plate every few innings. At any rate, such religious disputes cannot be resolved except by mutual excommunication.

On a side note, those late 80's Mets were among the most evil teams ever. Another favorite moment was the end of the '87 season--the Cards clinched the night before a season-ending series with the Mets, with the Mets in the stadium watching, I believe. HoJo had 99 RBIs, and the Cards pitched around him every time up so that filthy bat-corking cheater wouldn't get the satisfaction of 100...

Another stroke of Johnson genius was to use HoJo & even Kevin Mitchell at ss when El Sid pitched, since he never allowed grounders anyway.

Mo played 1b.

AA and AAA affiliates of National League teams bat the pitcher when playing each other (but the DH when playing AL affiliates). That way no call up is likely to bat for the first time in the majors.

OJ:

Wow. I guess I just assumed a traditionalist like you would oppose the DH on principle.

Matt:

Seen a pitcher hit lately? seen one bunt? And they don't practice either at all. If they don't take the craft seriously why have them do it?

Maybe because they should take the craft seriuosly, or be made to?

They get paid too much for pitching to care about hitting. Let a guy who gets paid to hit do it.

So it's the money, not the "integrity" of the game?

Integrity? where's the integrity in doing something you don't care about doing well?

Might be wrong, but integrity got the job done well at Normandy, Saipan, Okinawa etc.,

Integrity? That was just bigger population, better equipment and overextended psychotic foes.

Meanwhile the USA lost to a team today which fielded a catcher named Maxim St. Pierre.

OJ:

I am very much in agreement with you; I'm an AL guy and I like the DH. I'm just surprised to hear you say it. There's a certain type of baseball fan who hates the DH and you seem like the type.

I missed the game today due to work, but my dad tells me Adam Stern had an inside-the-park home run today. Stern played baseball at Nebraska before playing for Canada and the Boston Freakin' Red Sox. I've got a textbook case of mixed feelings.

oj: So why not let teams play their best 9 position players in the field, and have a batting order consisting of the best 4 hitters on the roster? That way you'd only see players doing what they were best at...

For a Mets fan, you have seemingly forgotten Al Weis. Granted, he wasn't a pitcher, but.....

I'd have had Seaver hit and DHed for Weis

b:

They needn't be best, just interested. Pitchers aren't interested in hitting.

Matt:

No, I hate television, the Playoffs, and World Series. I like Spring Training and the radio.

Stern's catch today was the heartbreaker.

D'oh.