Baseball's Designated Hitter
History of and Concerns Regarding the DH Position in Baseball
The reasons offensive numbers may be heightened over the last decade and why the Designated Hitter role should be abolished in Major League Baseball.
In 1973 the American League of Major League Baseball -- in an attempt to boost offensive production and fan satisfaction -- proposed and approved a rule authorizing the first full-time Designated Hitter . But does having a DH take away from the original strategy and purity of the sport?
The impact of the DH
Offensive numbers are exploding due to many factors such as financial and talent disparity between the two leagues, league expansion, and the change of offensive focus to power instead of strategy and speed – which has been a side effect of the DH. All of these factors combined it is hard to argue the designated hitter is the sole contributor to the rise in runs scored and offensive hitting statistics in the last decade for the American League.
How much offensive production the designated hitter has actually produced compared to other factors is debatable. The first five years following the rule implementation home run production actually decreased slightly for both leagues. But in the statistical categories of runs batted in, slugging percentage, and base hits the American League eclipsed its rival league within the first five years of the DH rule. Now the AL averages close to 100 more hits per team per year then the NL teams. But other factors must be considered.
The majority of the larger market teams and talent have amassed in the American League. For example, the American League has won nine of the last ten All-Star games -- the remaining game was a tie. Four out of the five teams with the highest salary costs are from the AL, and six out of seven of the lowest overall salary teams are from the National League. Talent and money have drifted to the American League; accompanied by a designated hitter the offense produced in this league is so unorthodox compared to the sports original numbers the game doesn't even resemble its original identity.
Expansion has contributed to the rise of offensive production
Kevin Quinn and Paul Bursik , authors of Growing and Moving the Game: Effects of MLB Expansion and Team Relocation 1950-2004 claim that, "'conventional wisdom' holds that MLB league expansion leads to distribution of the available baseball talent across more teams, and that the thinning of talent has a greater negative effect on quality of pitching than on hitting.” Major League Baseball has expanded 87% since 1960 just to give an indication of how thin this pitching talent may be spread.
Abolish the designated hitter
Not all experts agree that the league making rules that support the cataclysmic change in offensive production is necessarily good for the future of the sport. Bob Costas, a sports broadcaster and respected baseball analyst is one of those considered a “purist” of the sport had this to say in his column in the USA Today “...the loss of strategy and the over-emphasis on power at the expense of some of the game's subtleties is simply too great a price to pay for the advantages of the DH.” After considering the inequality of player talent, due to monetary disparity between the leagues, league expansion thinning pitching talent, and the modern power, development, and strength of players already raising offensive production of the game in almost every power category and scoring, is the game losing its strategic roots to boost offense even necessary? Well, in the era which the game was deemed “America's sport” there was no designated hitter, not to mention the games greatest hitter, Babe Ruth , entered the league as a pitcher. Who said pitchers couldn't hit?
Read more about NL stars: Barry Bonds and Ken Griffey Jr.
