Is the American League as Powerful as It Thinks? by Ed Stern
Marty; The “big, powerful American League” is again proclaimng a built in excuse when interleague play shows that they aren’t quite as big and powerful as they insist. Now, the word apparently is that they play at a terrible disadvantage when playing in National League parks because thay are not allowed to play with ten men rather than with the nine the game was intended for.
In 1973, when the American League was being consistently outplayed by the National League, American League owners, plaintively decided that the rules by which the game had been played for seventy-five years or more, needed a change in the most basic character of the sport. Baseball had always been a game which emphasized that each player had to play both offense and defense. It was a game which demanded individual responsibility and multiple skills.
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It was game unlike any other in that respect. It did not allow for lesser athletic skills. Many players who came up could hit well enough to earn a place on the team. Nevertheless, they didn’t have the necessary talent to play the game as the game demanded. They quickly were sent back to the minors.
A further challenge to the integrity of the game can be seen in the careers of Gibson and Drysdale, on the one hand, and Clemens on the other. All three were head hunters. Clemens ran away and hid as a result of the DH rule. Gibson and Drysdale had to stand up under the pressure of facing a pitcher who would, in all likelihood, be retaliating. Individual responsibility was lost as a result of the DH.
If the DH was in existence when Ruth was playing, the chances are that he would have played a good deal longer than he did. He was obliged to play the game as it was intended to be played. He did that very well until age caught up with him. This is simply another reason why the Bonds chase of Ruth has become a farce.
There are strategic reasons why the DH has changed the character of the game. True fans, who delight in watching a well-played close game, with difficult decisions to be made in late innings, enjoy the game as much or more than those fans who delight in seeing 18 to 1 scores.
It will be interesting to see how the inter-league games play out.
By the way, the Giants bullpen isn’t a disaster because they are overused. It’s a disaster because thay can’t throw the ball over the plate, irrespective of how much they are used.
Ed
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Ed the word “intended” is in your commentary. How do we know just what the framers of baseball intended? Perhaps when the DH was first discussed with interleague play in the 1920’s it may have been in response to something suggested by Henry Chadwick, the father of baseball, in the 1870’s.
Baseball rules evolved from 1850 thru 1903 so I am not sure what variations may have been considered.
The last time I checked the most common score in the AL seemed to be 6-5 not 18-1.
A good old fashioned 6-5 game beats a string of 3-2 games any day.
NL teams have essentially four innings to mount rallies because of the weaknesses of the 8th and 9th hitters. In fact the big strategy that “true” baseball fans in the NL talk about is basically how can the opposing pitcher work around the few hitters in the lineup and get to the end of the order where the pitcher and his close friends are waiting.
So let’s see how the interleague plays out, usually the NL wins the majority of the games in its parks and then the AL reverses that in its stadiums.
Marty
“In 1973 the AL was being consistently outplayed by the NL”? Let’s see: World Series Champs 1972, Oakland; 1973, Oakland; 1974, Oakland.
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