The DH Doesn’t Help

Won’t somebody please think of the children?

By Will Greenberg

As a baseball traditionalist, I have been disturbed by rumors of Major League Baseball implementing a league-wide designated hitter rule. I just thought I’d make my feelings abundantly clear: normalizing the DH in the MLB would be the kiss of death to professional baseball in America.

For those who aren’t baseball experts, the designated hitter is a player that bats in the place of the pitcher, the logic being that pitchers are not great batters. This DH only bats and doesn’t play defense. In Major League Baseball’s American League, the DH has been used since 1973 while the National League still has pitchers in the batting lineup. The debate now is whether or not to create a uniform set of rules for both leagues, though for most people that means implementing the DH in the NL.

The DH is designed to make the game more interesting. It’s supposed to give each team the chance to use whatever player has the best skills to handle any given situation, offense or defense. I know the arguments for it: better hitters in the lineup make for more offense; it protects pitchers from needless injuries; it elongates the careers of expert hitters who have poor defense.

These are quality arguments but they overlook a crucial point.

While it may seem like the DH would serve as bolstering offense, I believe it will actually have the reverse effect for many kids just learning to play and be detrimental to the future of professional baseball. A normalized DH rule will encourage little league coaches to use only kid’s better qualities, not allowing them to work on their weaker areas, and will ultimately deter kids from playing. In the long run, this will significantly reduce the amount of athletic, passionate ballplayers. Let me explain:

American kids are steadily losing interest in baseball in favor of other sports. Between 2000 and 2009, participation dropped 24 percent; the most recent numbers show an 8.3 percent drop between 2008 and 2012.

Much of the decline is attributed to forced specialization from parents, having kids focus on one sport year round instead of playing baseball in the summer, basketball in the winter, soccer in the fall, etc. Parents want their kid to become a star in their sport so they take “practice makes perfect” to a whole new level. However, studies are showing that the joys of being highly trained don’t outweigh the pressure, stress, and monotony from playing one sport and it doesn’t take long for a kid to burn out.

“We have to be aware of single sport specialization, overuse, overworking kids searching for the elite athletes,” said Michael Bergeron, Executive Director of the National Youth Sports Health & Safety Institute, in a Wall Street Journal Article. “All of these things are causing kids to leave youth sport and not return.”

Youth baseball has its own specialization patterns. Since the AL adopted the DH, college teams, high school teams, and even some little league teams started using it themselves. This means relegating some kids to only pitch and some kids to only bat, meaning they won’t get the chance to develop either hitting or defense. Parents and coaches are becoming increasingly more competitive, at younger age levels of play, and will take any advantage offered to them in order to win — even in it means making the game less fun for the kid.

Normalizing the DH will only exacerbate these trends and it can only contribute to the decline in participation.

Denying any kid the chance to bat significantly reduces the appeal of the sport. What’s one of the most common sports fantasies for a kid? Bottom of the ninth, two outs, bases loaded, and I’m up to bat. As baseball’s popularity dwindles, why would anyone want to further deny kids the opportunity to have one of the classic, most memorable experiences of American childhood?

A normalized DH rule will beget further specialization in all levels of baseball so coaches can be as competitive as possible, take the bat out of more kids’ hands, and disenfranchise even more kids from pursuing the sport.

I experienced the negative effects of this specialization myself. I played pitcher and first baseman. During those years, if I was in the game, I was completely in the game — in the batting order and on the field. When it was all over, when I felt the dull pain in my throwing arm, when I was covered in dust from sliding into second, I felt like a ballplayer. It was heaven; it made me fall in love with baseball.

Then there was high school baseball. I finally saw what being part of a highly competitive league was like and it was like I was playing a different sport.

When my hitting was cold, my coach put me in the lineup less and less. Still, because I was a solid defender, I kept my spot at first base. By junior year, I was being DH’d for as a first baseman — a shameful situation, undoubtedly. On top of the frustration of having struggles at the plate, I felt irritated that I wasn’t given the chance to work out of my slump. In the “Moneyball” era of statistical decision making, my playing ability was picked apart until I was just a utility.

It ruined the game for me.

Now, isn’t a high school coach supposed to do everything in his or her power to create a winning team? Shouldn’t a kid playing at that age level be prepared to improve their play or else see the bench? Absolutely. But little leaguers shouldn’t or else they’ll never come back; that’s the danger of making the DH a normal part of baseball.

In fact, my prediction is if Major League Baseball normalizes the DH today, 18 years from now we’ll be looking at a pretty thin draft class.