When did pitchers have the ability to hit?
Baseball is intended to be about the total ballplayer. If you use his strengths, you must also suffer his weaknesses. Not every player could be Willie Mays. Dick Stuart drove in runs by the bushel for the teams for whom he played; he also kicked quite a few in owing to the prowess at first base that earned him the moniker Dr. Strangeglove. If Charlie Finley had his way, Stuart wouldn't have had to play the field, just hit. If he got a hit, then he be replaced for a pinch runner. And then he could come to bat again. Only one batter would have been needed in Finleyball, because if he got on base some Olympic track star would run for him. Then you'd have your fielding specialists playing defense. That would put an end not only to the fact that the pitcher can't hit, but the shortstop, too. Fortunately, Bowie Kuhn, who was idiotic enough to let Finley talk him into the DH, was so lame that he could let Finley talk him into that.
Do you like a game with free substitution? Where everybody is a specialist? Then watch the NFL. Leave baseball to real baseball fans.
BTW, do you have any sense of irony? What's this steer manure about staring at dumbness when the pitcher comes up? Using the DH is what is dumbing down baseball, not thinking along with the manager making an important decision. Deciding what to do in a specific, concrete situation celebrates that which sets us apart from lower species: newts, chimps, Wall Street bankers and sports fans who sit on the couch and guzzle beer in front of the boob tube all afternoon. The ability to think strategically and tactically is why the human species survived. That's right, us. Homo sapiens, who can reach a top speed of about 25 mph for only short distances and looks like a kangaroo dancing when climbing a tree. Hail to the quick thinkers among us, and blessed be that which celebrates our ancestor who had the sharp wit to pick up a stone and throw it at a hungry sabre toothed cat, and cursed by that which mocks the man who thinks.
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