The DH is Somehow Okay

Logically and morally, the universal DH should be bad — but I can't bring myself to get annoyed about it.

The government shouldn’t be in the business of maintaining giant crosses. Can we all agree on that? When a governmental body pays to maintain a 40-foot cross that sits on government land, it’s clearly a violation of the Establishment Clause, whatever absurd things Town of Greece says (don’t worry, no one needs to understand that reference). Constitutionally, the government can’t favor one religion over another. That’s basic stuff.

And yet…while the Constitution is obviously a big deal, and as offensive as it should be that a facially nonsectarian government is paying to maintain giant crosses that sit on public land, it’s still difficult to get annoyed about it. They’re crosses: they sit there and symbolize that 100 years ago, governments didn’t really care about any religion besides Christianity, which is true and bad, but still, somehow not that big a deal. When you’re on the highway and you drive past a towering government-sponsored cross, you get vaguely annoyed, then you drive on and life continues as normal. That’s my read on the situation, anyway: logically and constitutionally, they shouldn’t be there, but they are, and it’s pretty much okay.

Pictured: the universal DH

When Rob Manfred announced the other day that the players and ownership have agreed to implement a universal DH, some fans reacted with absolute furor. I think I can sum up their argument myself: “The designated hitter DOESN’T work, because in REAL BASEBALL the SAME PLAYERS play OFFENSE AND DEFENSE, and they’re PERVERTING THE GAME for a GIMMICK, it’s so bad that the A.L. and the N.L. might at well NOT EXIST ANYMORE, and I don’t know if I’ll EVER WATCH A BASEBALL GAME AGAIN.”

Look: I’m anti-DH myself. I’ve got the receipts to prove it. I used to be a pretty fervent anti-DH guy too, arguing with people about how the DH made no logical sense, how if it came to the National League it would fundamentally change baseball, how you might as well have two completely separate lineups for offense and defense, how pitchers hitting led to some of the best, most unexpected moments in baseball, how it was vital to preserve the strategic integrity, and on and on and on.

I still agree with all of that. But now, in the real world, the designated hitter is coming to both leagues. Logically, it’s vaguely bad. But it’s here, and somehow it’s pretty much okay.

Here’s the thing: it’s still baseball. It’s still nine players on a field and nine players hitting. One of them will be different, but the core of the game hasn’t changed. Each batter still steps up to the plate and tries to hit the ball; each fielder tries to catch it or throw the batter out at first. There are still pickoffs. Drag bunts. Towering home runs. Soft liners to the opposite field. Smart baserunners going first to third on a single. Humming fastballs that dot the outside corner at the knees. Third basemen scooping short hops out of the dirt. Changeups and two seam fastballs that move like screwballs and leave batters paralyzed.

It’s still baseball. And it will be fine.

Pitchers won’t hit anymore. I’ll miss the free outs they provided Jacob deGrom, but otherwise, it will be okay. There won’t be as many double switches or butcher-boy surprise swings. I’ll miss them, but let’s be honest: it’s not like they were some essential component of baseball without which the sport will never be the same. There will still be bad hitters, so there will still be strategy about whether to let your bad hitters hit. There will still be bunting situations, so there will still be managerial decisions about whether to put the bunt on or not. Logically, sure, once you add the DH you might as well have separate lineups on offense and defense. But the American League has had the DH for going on 50 years now, and there’s never been so much as an inkling that anything like that was remotely under consideration. If it’s a slippery slope, we’ve been slipping for a while now, and it’s all come to nothing.

If fans really can’t get over this, if they’re so offended that they’ll leave baseball behind for life, they have every right to do so. But I can’t bring myself to see the DH as that much of a problem. Sure, it’s not much of a benefit either. Maybe fewer pitchers will get injured and maybe they won’t. Offensive numbers will rise, which can be good or bad. But at the end of the day, as angry as people get about it, this is a low-impact issue. Like a giant cross on government land next to the highway, it doesn’t make logical sense. It’s vaguely offensive. But then you drive away, and life and baseball go on.