Who invented designated hitter rule

The DH rule allowed a team to add a 10th player who would go to bat for the pitcher. Inevitably, the DH was a powerful batter who would rarely play the field. The villain: the 6-footinch pitcher with overpowering stuff. Actually, the cue had been sneaking up on him. In , the infield fly rule was adopted to keep smart infielders from tricking unsmart base-runners. In , it was revised to protect the innocent. In , the spitball was outlawed. In , the strike zone was defined armpit to top of knee.

In , it was defined again top of shoulder to bottom of knee. In , would you believe armpit to top of knee again? Still, in places like Rochester and Syracuse and Toledo, he was often the talk of the town: the man who did nothing but bat for the pitcher… He was experimental that summer, his stage was the [highest level of the minor league] and his impact on the seas of baseball tranquility was immediate.

More runs were scored. The designated hitters collectively batted points higher than the pitchers they replaced. The pitchers — who were allowed to stay in the game strictly as pitchers — began to stick around a lot longer.

Today, the support is far from overwhelming. Many fans still refuse to accept the idea. To them, the DH rule is the worst change ever introduced to the game. They consider the DH an alien on the team — a creature spawned in the box office to ruin the spirit of the game.

Fortunately, baseball offers an alternative: the DH Rule is used by only half of the major-league teams; there are no designated hitters on National League teams. So when fans debate the virtues and evils of designated hitters, they can compare the performance of teams between the two leagues. The Designated Hitter Rule is a fundamental controversy that can be found in art, goverment, philosophy, and religion: is it better to change the rules to achieve desired results, or should we improve our performance within the existing rules?

Cronin made the homer off Red Ehret, who was pitching for Minneapolis. It should be noted that the American League was considered a minor league during the season. This story had to be a gross exaggeration when one realizes that this was during the Deadball Era. Home runs were a rare occurrence and a good number of the home runs were inside-the-park ones. The article may well have been a gambit to forestall any talk of the pitcher no longer hitting.

Pitchers who can hit foot home runs should hit, right? The following quotes pitcher Addie Joss:. If there is one thing that a pitcher would rather do than make the opposing batsmen look foolish, it is to step to the plate, especially in a pinch, and deliver the much-needed hit. Joss, a Hall of Fame pitcher, had a major league career that spanned from to He won games to 97 losses for a.

However, he was a far better pitcher than batter. His batting average was only. That was. Probably not the best candidate to argue that pitchers should hit! The claim is further validated by looking at both Figures 2 and 3 that show that non-pitchers batted. A man needs that steady training day in and day out to put a finish on his work. Therefore, teams wanted pitchers to focus their time on becoming better pitchers rather than better hitters.

The outlaw Federal League was aware of the limited offensive capacity of pitchers in the lineup during this period. Also, the s ushered in the era of the home-run hitter as Babe Ruth made his everlasting impact on how the National Pastime was played! There are some interesting changes when you compare the s Deadball Era to the s.

Non-pitchers hit 5, or Therefore, in order to fairly compare the home runs hit by pitchers and non-pitchers, it is necessary to calculate Home Run per Plate Appearance for both. This represents an increase of more than double the Home Runs per Plate Appearance 2. During the Roaring Twenties, Babe Ruth and his home run hitting made him a bigger-than-life hero to the American public.

Americans were captivated by the home run and wanted more offense in the National Pastime. The year before 57 out of 62 were pitchers. Sam Breadon, majority owner of the St. Louis Cardinals, agreed with Heydler in principle but did not like the idea of the extra hitter because it would create more specialists.

After the matter was discussed, Commissioner Landis asked for a motion. Heydler advised the teams not to do so. He stated that if pitchers were to bat during the regular season, it would be important for them to bat during the spring to get ready.

He slugged 24 home runs with a. Even though his motion was not taken up by the owners, Heydler remained a staunch advocate of the DH concept. He indicated that he was waiting for the right time to present it to the major league rules committee again. The subject of the DH lay dormant during the s.

A long discussed experiment—elimination of the pitcher as a batter—will be given its first test next spring in state tournaments to be conducted by the National Semi-Pro Baseball Congress.

Advocates contend the change would speed up play and by assuring pitchers of a rest after each inning, the hurling would be strengthened and at the same time the weak end of the batting order would be bolstered. Nothing came of the experiment and the concept again went into hibernation until the s when pitching had become the King of Baseball.

American League batters only had a. In fact, there were only six batters who batted. The powers that be in major league baseball realized that fans liked to see good hitting more than good pitching.

Before long, four other minor leagues were trying it also, but at the conclusion of the experiment, the American and National leagues could not agree on its implementation.

The American League voted in favor of the rule change while the National voted against it. A compromise was agreed upon: the American League would use the Designated Hitter for three seasons beginning in After that trial period, both leagues would either employ the DH in their games or return to the pitcher being a hitter.

The reason was simple according to John Thorn, official Historian of Major League Baseball: increased offense meant higher attendance in the American League.

During the Fall Classic, everything—and I do mean, everything—around the game is magnified to the utmost degree. The DH Rule is no exception. MLB has made three attempts to reconcile the difference between the two leagues for World Series play. Conservative-minded baseball management probably figured that this would be a three-year experiment and then just go away.

But once the American League decided to keep the DH, it was necessary for baseball to recognize that fact. In this era, the DH was employed in the World Series during the even-numbered years and the pitchers hit for themselves in the odd-numbered years. Many felt that this gave an advantage to the American League teams in the even-numbered years and the National League teams in the odd-numbered years.

It began in and is still in place to the present day. When interleague play started in the season, the major leagues adopted this same methodology to keep consistency in the game with regard to the DH issue. Any other decision would have probably caused more debate and friction between the two leagues. The only reason that can be surmised is that the pitcher was usually pinch hit for anyway in the All-Star Game.

More players could get in the game pinch hitting for the pitcher than utilizing a fixed DH. Pitchers from both leagues who batted in All-Star games from through went 0-for with 11 strikeouts. These two players were exact opposites as far as hitting was concerned! To further add to the DH lore, he came to bat again in that game which was his last appearance as a DH in the major leagues. Baines, on the other hand, was a DH frequently during his career. In fact, he had 6, plate appearances as a DH, second only to David Ortiz.

In , the DH was used universally, as it had been in the regular season and during the rest of the postseason, with things reverting to past practice in While critics of the DH suggest that it was designed to allow poor fielders to remain in the game despite their defensive flaws, it has not always been used that way.

Many Designated Hitters have been players who were capable fielders who were injury-prone and kept from fielding to preserve their health. Paul Molitor , the first Hall of Famer to play more games as DH than any other position, fell into this category.

Some teams don't even have a regular DH and instead use it to give their regular position players a break from fielding. Ron Blomberg of the New York Yankees was the first player to bat as a designated hitter. Hal McRae was the first player to spend most of his career as a DH; other all-time leaders at the position include Edgar Martinez , Harold Baines and David Ortiz , who is now the career leader for hits, home runs and RBIs at the position.

The DH was first used in the American Association in Usage in the minors changed over time - originally, individual organizations had some say in whether their teams used the DH or not. For a while, the Cincinnati Reds were adamant about having their pitchers bat for all their minor league affiliates.

At other points a team would have their pitcher bat while their opponent used a DH. In class A or lower games, the DH is always used. In , the independent Atlantic League was asked by MLB to test a new version of the rule, in which the designated hitter would be removed as soon as the starting pitcher left the game. The objective would be to encourage teams to use their starting pitchers deeper into games, and also to cut down on the use of openers , while injecting some additional strategy late in games.

In , the minor league Eastern League and Western League used it, but Central League farm clubs are allowed to opt out. The DH listed in the starting line-up must bat at least once before being substituted, unless there is an injury or the opposite team's starting pitcher has been changed. This rule was added after the season to close a loophole discovered by Orioles manager Earl Weaver : he would list one of his inactive starting pitchers in the starting line-up as a phantom DH , and then, when his first time to bat came up, Weaver could decide which of a number of players to use as a pinch hitter for his DH, depending on the situation for example if there were men on base, if he needed a baserunner, etc.

Pitchers Steve Stone and Dennis Martinez were used most often in this capacity. Boxscores from that time would list the pitchers as having played a game at DH, but after the amendment to the rule was adopted, these "appearances" were erased from these pitchers' records.