The Designated Hitter
I heard Jon Miller (the radio man for the SF Giants baseball broadcasts) killing some air time a couple of days ago by making a comparison in favor of the Designated Hitter rule that’s used in the American League now, and has been for quite a while. His comparison was that a quarterback in the NFL doesn’t play defense, so why should a pitcher in MLB take a turn at bat? He seems to think that this is a valid comparison. I disagree. In the not really distant past, football players went “both ways”, in the parlance, playing both offense and defense. In high school, I did that too. Lots of us did. Things changed in football, and specialists became the manner of play. In football you’ve got an offensive team, a defensive team, and “special” teams for kickoffs, kickoff returns, punts, punts returns, field goals, extra points—Etcetras. It’s endless. That’s fine for football. I don’t care. The NFL has been off my personal radar for so long that I don’t even kn...