Designated hitter debate still alive after 40 years

Fri., July 19, 2013

Dave Campbell Associated Press

The Top 3

At 40 years and counting, the designated hitter debate continues in baseball.

Inarguably, though, some of the game’s greatest batters have been able to extend or enhance their careers with the DH rule in the American League. Here’s one take on the top three designated hitters:

3. Paul Molitor

The first DH to win the World Series MVP award, with Toronto in 1993, was a first-ballot Cooperstown inductee with 3,319 hits and 504 stolen bases over his 21-year career.

Molitor was an infielder when his body allowed it, but persistent injuries steered him toward the DH role by the end of his tenure with Milwaukee. He won his final of four Silver Slugger awards as a DH with Minnesota in 1996.

2. David Ortiz

Ortiz became the leader in career hits by a DH this month, passing Harold Baines.

Ortiz has played sparingly at first base over 17 years in the majors but been a fixture among the A.L. offensive leaders, highlighted by the 54 homers and 137 RBIs he totaled in 2006, both league highs. His career on-base-plus-slugging percentage is a whopping .931.

1. Edgar Martinez

Hamstring problems made Martinez, who began his career as a third baseman, a regular DH. Had he been healthy enough to play in the field more, Martinez might be in the Hall of Fame. He never reached 200 hits in any of his 18 seasons, all with Seattle, but his .418 career on-base percentage was one of the best of his generation.

In 2000 at age 37, Martinez hit .324 with 37 home runs and 145 RBIs. He had four seasons of 46-plus doubles.

The designated hitter turned 40 this year.

Fittingly, it’s having sort of a midlife crisis.

Never before has the imbalance between the American and National leagues regarding Rule 6.10 been more of a potential problem.

The designated hitter rule has been controversial from day one. It’s been criticized and even confusing since it was born. So it’s only natural that Major League Baseball’s once-bold experiment will continue to exist unevenly and indefinitely.

The DH debate won’t die.

“A little controversy between the leagues is really not all bad,” Commissioner Bud Selig said before the All-Star game in New York on Tuesday.

Selig cast one of the votes for using the designated hitter in A.L. games starting in 1973, when he owned the Milwaukee Brewers, then an A.L. franchise. He acknowledged this week that further geographic changes to divisions could force MLB to either scrap the DH altogether or install it for the N.L., but that’s a future possibility and not an imminent plan.

When Houston switched to the A.L. West this year to even out the leagues at 15 teams each, daily interleague games became a necessity of the schedule.

“At the moment,” Selig said, “we are not going to change it.”

Perhaps the most polarizing of this sport’s many quirks and imperfections, the designated hitter came to be when A.L. teams sought to boost their then-lagging product. The decision was made during a time when the two leagues were far less integrated than now.

The gimmick not only worked to increase scoring and attendance but created a way for some of the game’s greatest hitters to extend their careers – and make a lot more money.

Orlando Cepeda credited the rule for boosting his Hall of Fame credentials, after Boston signed him for the 1973 season following a long career with the San Francisco Giants.

“That was one of the best years, because I was playing on one leg and I hit .289,” Cepeda said earlier this season. “And I hit four doubles in one game. Both my knees were hurting, and I was designated hitter of the year.”

Designated hitters last year had the second-highest average salary by position at $8.1 million, behind first basemen at $8.6 million. That’s the main reason why eliminating the DH to bring the A.L. back on line with the N.L. is almost unfathomable.

Boston’s David Ortiz, who recently passed Harold Baines on the career list for hits by a DH, is making $14 million this season at age 37.

The designated hitter has also helped teams keep their best players in the lineup while giving them some type of rest. Minnesota All-Star catcher Joe Mauer is a prime example. When he needs a break from crouching behind the plate, manager Ron Gardenhire can keep his potent bat in the lineup at DH.

“I get a lot of questions about the DH, how we use it and all that stuff, but basically the way I see it is I’d rather see David Ortiz hit than some pitcher,” Mauer said, intending no offense to his own teammates. “So we’ll see. It is what it is right now.”

Most of Mauer’s A.L. peers predictably express support for the DH’s existence, even if a lot of them would rather play a position than sit around between at-bats. The power of the players’ union, protective of this lucrative and prominent job, is another undeniable force for the DH. Despite the complaints from dads with sleepy kids at long games, fans usually enjoy seeing runs cross the plate.

The cumulative A.L. batting average has beaten the N.L.’s mark in each of the first 40 seasons of the DH.

The last time the N.L. hit better than .270 was 1939. The A.L. has 11 seasons of .270-plus batting during the DH era.

There are purists who have a hard time forgiving MLB for installing the DH, though. Remember the movie “Bull Durham,” when Kevin Costner’s character Crash Davis launches his crude rant about the qualities and superficialities of life?

“I believe there ought to be a constitutional amendment outlawing AstroTurf and the designated hitter,” he said.

The N.L. guys, naturally, tout the purity of the no-DH game and the additional substitution strategy it provides.

Many pitchers simply find it fun to try to hit – even if it means sometimes looking silly swinging meekly at strike three.

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