This past season in the MLB was one of my favourites in a long time. Jose Bautista came out of nowhere to hit 53 home runs, there were multiple perfect games and no hitters all around the league, and there was a Yankees/Red Sox/Phillies-less World Series played out between the Giants and the Rangers.
But whenever the World Series comes around, the different styles of AL and NL ball always seem to clash. Especially the notorious NL custom of pitchers coming to the plate to hit. It’s a rule that has always bothered me for about as long as I’ve been around baseball. For the majority of the time, it’s an automatic extra out in a team’s inning. Some pitchers are better than others at the plate, and heck, some even don’t look half bad up there, sometimes. But when you’ve pitched, not hit, your way to the big leagues, there’s just no way the motivation can be there for drastic improvements. On average, a starting pitcher will hit a couple times every five days, and a reliever even less than that. It’s such a small requirement, it might as well be done away with. And it’s not just about the 9-spot in the lineup, consider the strategy that it affects as well. Runners on the corners. 2 outs. The #8 hitter stepping up to the plate.
Thanks to that guy on deck, the end of the inning is only one intentional walk and one strikeout and/or groundout away.
And I’m not blaming the pitchers either. Pitching at a major league level is something only a handful of athletes can do, and takes years upon years of preparation. But so is hitting at a major league level, and barring the emergence of some superhuman hurler in the future, there will be no hot hitting pitchers in the picture. The DH brings better offence, more players into the game, and less “free outs” for an opposing pitcher.
Though it’s a rule I’m annoyed with, it’s one that I obviously expect to see whenever I watch an NL home game. It was something else that I saw happen this year that really drove it home.
Roy Oswalt slides into home plate wearing his team jacket
It’s Game 2 of the NLCS. Roy Oswalt gets a base-hit during one of his at-bats (I didn’t say it never happened, I only said it rarely happened…way to go Roy). But as soon as he reached base, he opted to put on a jacket to run the bases, and later scored (pictured), looking ridiculous wearing said jacket.
Now yes, I am aware that pitchers do that to keep warm, and the majority of baseball fans don’t really have a problem with it. I, however, definitely have problems with it. Firstly on a big picture level, if pitchers are so fragile as to need a jacket on every minute they’re not on the mound, why would anyone let them stand in front of their colleague’s 95 MPH fastball? Players get hit accidentally, and accidentally on purpose, all the time. If decreasing vulnerability to an injury is such a concern, why let them hit? A baseball player’s jacket, while very comfortable, is not part of the uniform. No other position player could ask to wear their jacket anywhere on the field for any reason, let alone wanting to feel warm and snuggly.
I’m a big fan of perfect games, no hitters, dirty curveballs, and the guys that throw them. And once the MLB takes the bat out of their hands, they can wear their comfy jackets in-between innings all they want.
