To DH Or Not To DH?: That Is The National League Question.

If the National League had the Designated Hitter, this guy might still be wearing the uniform pictured above.

Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia and

shgmom56 under CC BY-SA 2.0 License

One of the new topics up for debate as the the 2015 Major League Baseball season rolls along into its second is the potential addition of the Designated Hitter rule in the National League.

Old school baseball fan purists will argue that the addition of the DH to possibly both leagues will take away from the overall strategy of the game.  New school baseball fans will most likely consider all avenues of improvement to make America's national pasttime a better game overall going forward and that includes looking at adding the DH to the senior circuit.

I've had many a conversation with my Dad on this issue.  Let's just say his view toward it is the get off my lawn cranky old neighbor whereas I'm more open minded about seeing the DH in both leagues.

Perhaps my biggest selling point on adding the DH to the National League is for selfish reasons. That is I just think it is just plain boring to watch pitchers hit nowadays.

Consider the following as an example.  Your favorite is up batting and has a rally going with a pretty good chance of scoring multiple runs in said inning.  Things are going so well that your team now has the bases loaded with the pitcher's spot coming up.  To make the situation even better (or worse, depending on your perspective), there are no outs.  Now the way thing currently stand, your team will probably use a pinch hitter off the bench in this situation.  All I can say is good luck to that guy on the bench who probably is not good enough already to be penciled into the starting lineup.  Either of these situations would be less than ideal for me as a fan.  I wouldn't want to have to depend on that day's starting pitcher to come up with a big hit or put my faith in a bench guy who may only get a couple at bats a week.  That is not a successful recipe for offensive consistency in a lineup if you ask me.  Pitchers already have enough to worry about when facing a big league lineup loaded with hopefully quality Major League hitters.  They don't need any added distractions on top of that.

Here's another question to consider on the subject?  Have you ever thought to yourself why is it that the big name superstars like Miguel Cabrera and Albert Pujols sign with American League ballclubs when they hit free agency and cash in on the mega deals of their careers that has them set for life financially?  If you guessed the security blanket of the Designated Hitter spot as they get older, here's your gold star!

By adding the DH to both leagues for future seasons, all 30 Major League ballclubs would have an equal opportunity at going after the big superstars instead of the usual 15 that the junior circuit has to offer.  If that was the case, Albert would most likely still be a member of the St. Louis Cardinals.  As for Miguel Cabrera, he probably still wouldn't be a member of the Miami Marlins but that's another story for another day.

In any case, the DH Debate isn't going away anytime soon.  Here's my final prediction: the DH is coming to the National League and baseball will be better for it in the long run.

Tim Musick
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