I am so proud of my friend Jim Halloran's Substack newsletter. I also write at Substack, about politics mostly, and "7 decades of baseball pennant races" is a welcome and refreshing respite from the nonsense and calamity that overwhelm our world today. That said, when I become Commissioner of Baseball the first thing I will do is eliminate the DH in both leagues. This is such a tragedy, and like challenge flags and robot umpires, it's ruining the game. This is what happens when lawyers, not baseball people, run the game. Recall back to June 23, 1971, when Rick Wise no-hit the Cincinnati Reds at Riverfront and drove in 3 of the Phillies' 4 runs with two home runs. After the game the radio announcer wanted Wise to talk about his no-hitter. Rick Wise wanted to talk about the home runs. Unless Organized Baseball wises up and understands what makes baseball such a colorful and awesomely, uniquely wonderful game, it will become about as exciting as a soccer match.
When I toiled on the Greenfield Daily Reporter in Indiana, an acquaintance who started as a source and became a friend, Dick Baney, was a pitcher who played most of his career in AAA (Hawaii and Indianapolis) but briefly for the Cincinnati Reds. He once told me that hitting is psychological and most pitchers believe the mantra that pitchers can't hit. "Put a bat in my hand and I'll show you," he said. To me, nothing is more exciting than seeing a pitcher get a hit -- something we won't see again because they don't even bat in college anymore.
Today's fans only want the homerun. Baseball strategies are of little interest. Pitchers are capable of hitting, they are athletes. Many, if not most, were probably the best hitters on their youth, high school and college teams.
I am so proud of my friend Jim Halloran's Substack newsletter. I also write at Substack, about politics mostly, and "7 decades of baseball pennant races" is a welcome and refreshing respite from the nonsense and calamity that overwhelm our world today. That said, when I become Commissioner of Baseball the first thing I will do is eliminate the DH in both leagues. This is such a tragedy, and like challenge flags and robot umpires, it's ruining the game. This is what happens when lawyers, not baseball people, run the game. Recall back to June 23, 1971, when Rick Wise no-hit the Cincinnati Reds at Riverfront and drove in 3 of the Phillies' 4 runs with two home runs. After the game the radio announcer wanted Wise to talk about his no-hitter. Rick Wise wanted to talk about the home runs. Unless Organized Baseball wises up and understands what makes baseball such a colorful and awesomely, uniquely wonderful game, it will become about as exciting as a soccer match.
Great comments Steve. The Rick Wise story is a classic. It is not the lawyers ruining the game. It is the greedy corporations that they work for.
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When I toiled on the Greenfield Daily Reporter in Indiana, an acquaintance who started as a source and became a friend, Dick Baney, was a pitcher who played most of his career in AAA (Hawaii and Indianapolis) but briefly for the Cincinnati Reds. He once told me that hitting is psychological and most pitchers believe the mantra that pitchers can't hit. "Put a bat in my hand and I'll show you," he said. To me, nothing is more exciting than seeing a pitcher get a hit -- something we won't see again because they don't even bat in college anymore.
Today's fans only want the homerun. Baseball strategies are of little interest. Pitchers are capable of hitting, they are athletes. Many, if not most, were probably the best hitters on their youth, high school and college teams.