The designated hitter has been widely controversial since its institution by the American League in 1973. This site certainly desires to fan the flames of controversy further. It’s my opinion that the use of the DH strips some athletic integrity from the game and widens the long-term performance gap between rich teams and poor ones.
When we evaluate an offensive player, we remember to consider where they might fit into a defensive scheme when thinking about their potential place on a baseball team. We don’t care how well potential third basemen pivot for the double play, but a second basemen better be able to. We don’t care if a potential shortstop can hit the cutoff man, but a right fielder should. To the extent that the defensive positions are different from one another and demand unique skills, we look for those skills in making up a team’s defense. In addition to these defensive considerations, players must be able to adequately hit.
That diversity in defense, by the way, makes for a superior game. When multiple players must bring multiple skill sets, the possible combinations of in-game quality are only enhanced. This isn’t, of course, unique to baseball, either. Point guards generally aren’t judged on their shot-blocking, but they better be able to find the open shooter.
If you want to make the argument that more specialization is good for baseball, though, then why not argue for the route of American football? Permit 8 fielders to form the defensive team, and 8 hitters to form the offensive team. That is, of course, the logical extreme. We don’t do that, though, again because the game is better by demanding some diverse talents from everyone.
Baseball, though, robs itself of only one part of this decision when it plays with the designated hitter. As designated hitters are freed from any burden to play defense, they can be fat, old, injured, gimpy, out of shape and bring nothing to the table for us to consider besides offense; a burden not even unique to them, as it’s shared with the team’s other hitters. A large slice of athletic integrity is taken from the equation here.
Further, the existence of the DH in professional baseball further retards the progress towards a league with more heightened parity. The DH rule requires that every American League team have nine starting hitters, and presumably adjust their payrolls accordingly. Now, for Boston and New York and other large market teams, this is no big deal. For a small market team, we’ve just added one more kink in the armor of salary and payroll maintenance; that is, it’s a bit more difficult for the smaller market team to keep up. In one of my economics courses in college – I can’t recall which one – the professor detailed how the Miller Brewing Company was the largest lobbyist to the Wisconsin State Assembly for Brewery hygiene standards. Why would the state’s largest brewery want more hygiene regulations? Because Miller knew that for the hundreds of locally owned micro-breweries throughout the state, the new regulations would be far tougher for them to comply than for Miller. How can large market baseball teams get an ingrained edge over small market teams? Force small market teams to take on an additional financial burden, or rather, reap the reward when the league forces it.
In the last twenty years, the American League has averaged 50 more points of standard deviation in gross annual winning percentage than the National League. I don’t mean to suggest causation between the DH and greater winning percentage deviation, but couldn’t part of that gap be minimally explained by there being a league-wide financial burden in the AL that the NL doesn’t have? And if so, oughtn’t it be corrected?
The DH was a knee-jerk reaction by owners seeking to inject more offense into the game. Perhaps their intention was a good one, but creating a one-sided position was not the way to fix it. I doubt they intended to strip athletic integrity from the game, I doubt they foresaw the possibility for widening the gap between rich and poor.
In any event, the best option wasn’t implemented. The 8 Man Lineup….
The 8-Man Lineup -- Settling the DH Debate 