Daylight Savings and the Designated Hitter.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

With all the drama in the world, these two changes are still major. At least to our day to day life at work and at play.

(CNN)The Senate on Tuesday passed a measure that would make Daylight Saving Time permanent across the United States.

The Sunshine Protection Act passed the chamber by unanimous consent. The bill would still need to pass the House and be signed by President Joe Biden to become law.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/15/politics/senate-daylight-saving-time-permanent/index.html

PHOENIX (AP) — It was an impressive holdout for the National League, which made it nearly 50 years staving off a full-time designated hitter rule that the American League implemented before the 1973 season.

“We'll continue to play by baseball rules,” NL President Chub Feeney famously said back then.

Well, the rules have finally changed.

https://news.yahoo.com/half-century-holdout-over-dh-211459278.html

[SheltieLover]

1. Now NL has gone to DH?

[ironflange]

31. What's next, aluminum bats?

[bucolic_frolic]

2. Baseball ain't baseball, and time ain't time, anymore.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

4. These are two issues I'm quite conservative on.

I think it best to try DST for 3 years and vote again. But the DH really changes baseball in a way I'd care about - if I still cared about baseball at all. I'd rather they limit pitcher changes to 3 per game.

[madinmaryland]

3. Baseball is now DEAD to me. Did you hear that El Supremo?

The former Senior Circuit is now just a subset of the Junior Circuit.

[Auggie]

8. Field shift limits are next

[madinmaryland]

21. I read about that also. Regardless of all the changes the Pirates will still lose 100 games again!

[Ocelot II]

5. In 1974 they tried year-round daylight saving because of the energy crisis

and it didn't even last a year (January-October) before it was repealed. People hated it when fall came, and people were going to work and kids were waiting for school buses in the dark. Why is it likely to be different this time?

[SleeplessinSoCal]

9. Interesting. I didn't realize that.

I was living abroad at the time. But it just shows how bizarre these times are.

[Rebl2]

16. I remember

that clearly. Parents were angry because their kids were standing out in the dark waiting for the bus like you said. I was one of them. Odd thing is in the fall and winter now where I am the older kids are standing out in the dark waiting for buses.

[Jilly_in_VA]

19. Yeah, really

And I spent years working 7p-7a mostly, with occasional segues as a traveler to 7a-7p. We used to joke that in winter it didn't matter which shift you worked because it was dark when you got there and dark when you left. Stop bitching.

[RandomNumbers]

20. People hate changing the clocks - one thing a large majority agrees on.

I agree with you that suddenly people will wake up when fall/winter comes and their kids are going to school in the dark.

Hopefully then they'll figure out the answer isn't changing the clocks twice a year, but just get rid of DST altogether.

There is more light in summer - if they want to have kids go to school ealier so they have more time for outdoor activities in the evening, then do that. Don't f*ck with everyone else's biological clocks to accomplish that.

Alternatively this fall when the screaming starts about kids going to school in the dark, maybe someone will think to set winter hours for school an hour later?

[Rebl2]

24. Your last sentence

is an interesting idea

[RandomNumbers]

27. Thank you.

I really cannot figure out why this hasn't already been done to solve the issue of school kids going to school in the dark. Which IMO is a valid concern, but no excuse for messing with everyone else's schedule. Especially since this nonsense started when most kids had at a stay at home parent. And now is also a better opportunity for it with so many people working from home, and staffing challenges meaning employers need to be flexible.

[Rebl2]

25. I looked up to

see when DST started and it was 1908. Didn’t know it was that long ago. Thought it was in the 30’s or 40’s for some reason.

[TheRealNorth]

28. Which is kind of funny....

A lot of the newer digital clocks make the change automatically (if you program the date in correctly), so it seems like even less an issue.

I remember even my VCR in the 90's had a simple toggle on the menu screen for DST.

[Rebl2]

30. Oh no!

Now we will have another problem! All these computers, etc that automatically change with time change. 😊

[RandomNumbers]

36. It's not having to change the clocks physically that's the problem :)

It is the effect on people's biological clocks. aka circadian rhythm.

For me, I get used to waking up automatically at the appropriate time in the late winter. Then DST comes along and gets me all messed up. I think I would really prefer staying on standard time, but DST will be fine also - I'll get used to it and not have that disruption twice a year.

[Mariana]

34. Lots of things are different today than they were in 1974.

I don't think it's a bad idea to try it again and see how it goes.

Anyway, kids already wait for school buses in the dark where I live. I think they start the school day ridiculously early, but most of the parents don't seem to mind.

[Tommy Carcetti]

6. I like incongruity and chaos, I suppose.

I liked the biannual time change.

And I liked the AL/NL DH discrepancy.

Oh well.

[Jilly_in_VA]

7. That puts paid to me watching baseball

Not that I have since I moved to Virginia. Well, really since the demise of the superstations, because that meant I could no longer watch my two favorite teams, the Braves and the Cubs. For some stupid reason, Comcast thinks that just because I live in northern Virginia I have to be a fan of the Nats and the Orioles. Nope. Not gonna happen. Never in a million years. I have been a Braves fan since they moved to Milwaukee when I was a little girl and I liked the Cubs as a second favorite even when they were awful. And I was always a NL fan. The DH is a travesty. And I am damn sure not paying for the MLB "package" now that they have done this. Fcuk 'em. They can go on without me.

As for DST, that's fine with me. I prefer my daylight at the end of the day.

[USALiberal]

14. Why do you want to see a pitcher bat?

[Jilly_in_VA]

26. You must be a kid and an AL fan who doesn't remember

Pitchers didn't have to hit, per se, although there have been those who could. The Niekro brothers, to name a couple. But most pitchers could lay down a bunt, and not always a sacrifice, either. Some were uncanny good at it. Also there was an element of strategy that the DH takes away...did you let your pitcher, who was in front by a run or maybe even pitching a no-hitter, hit, or did you pinch hit for him and call in a reliever? Besides, I don't want to see an out of shape, over-aged guy stick around just because he can hit, if he can't play a position. BLEAH!

[USALiberal]

29. Good points! Nt

[crickets]

32. I'm with you all the way, Jilly. nt

[jcgoldie]

10. I'm all in favor of that sunshine protection act...

the DH, however, does not belong in my National League...

[USALiberal]

15. Why? Pitchers are boring!

[jcgoldie]

17. If all you want to watch is home runs sure

But if you want to see strategy like double switches and managers grinding their gears over when to the pull the pitcher for pinch hitting and monday morning quarterbacking over those decisions which is all the stuff that baseball lends itself to... it will never be high action like football or basketball... but there's a cerebral component of decision making that everyone can follow in real time in a ballgame and a big part of that flies out the window when you add one more guy to the lineup with a big stick and just let him flail away without even playing in the field and stop making pitchers hit... or bunt and sacrifice and so on...

[SleeplessinSoCal]

33. Agree. It alters strategy.

Plus I don't like the designated hitter who only bats and holds no position. It seems wimpy somehow.

And who doesn't love a great bunt?

[Jilly_in_VA]

35. YES!!!!

Taking strategy out of baseball is like taking the cheese off the pizza.

[TuskMoar]

11. Yes and No!

Yes! to permanent DST. Should have done this long ago.

No! to the DH. Won't ruin baseball for me, but pitchers should bat. Love the strategy it adds to the game. Sorry to see it go.

[marie999]

12. What a stupid name for the bill.

[RandomNumbers]

22. Well there's that :)

but the names of bills rarely reflect what is actually in them.

[doc03]

13. DST

[doc03]

18. DST

[RandomNumbers]

23. I'd go the other direction on both.

But I'll take permanent DST over changing the clocks.

As for the DH, well baseball has enough other stuff to be annoyed by, I'll get over that one. But I do like the idea of the pitcher having to be an all around baseball player.