Those who follow me, know I’m also a Phillies fan. I grew up in Philadelphia, and never saw an American League game until 1993 when I saw a Rangers game in the final season of Arlington Stadium. So I grew up with the NL and NL rules, and more to this discussion, pitchers batting. It’s been a bugaboo of mine for ages, pitchers batting. Even back when I was young, I hated it. You had a good inning going, and whoops – here comes the pitcher. Out. Yeah, there’s a handful of pitchers who could really hit, but let’s face it. 90% or higher of pitchers are horrible at the plate. They don’t have to do it regularly, so they have no incentive to work on that. Then there’s the issue of AL teams sending their guys to bat and doing something that is so against their normal routine that they get hurt. It happened back in June 2008 with the Yankees in Houston when Chien-Ming Wang tore a tendon and was out for most of the rest of the year. Hank Steinbrenner said at the time:
“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.”
I agree with that. I can’t stand when pitchers bat. The National League needs to add the DH. I know a lot of people will whine about it being bad, how it removes purity of the game, bla, bla, bla. I’m sorry, I can’t stand watching pitchers bat. Steinbrenner is right – the NL needs to get their act together, and get pitchers out of the batters’ box. For those who would say I don’t know what I’m talking about – I do. I moved to Texas when I was 27. I’m now 46, and I’ve lived with the DH for almost 20 years now. I just can’t stand the buzzkill that is pitchers batting. They need to stop. Please. [Read more…]