The Unbalanced Schedule, the DH and Interleague Play

There have been a lot of arguments in support of the DH over the years. The one I hear the most is the analogy that you don’t have your starting quarterback play defense. Personally I hate the DH rule, as far as I’m concerned it violates the general principle of the game. You have 9 in the field and when it’s your team’s turn to bat; those same 9 have to take their turn. With every asset there is liability so that in itself negates the quarterback comparison. I have always thought it unfair to compare baseball to other sports anyway.

The designated hitter was introduced in 1973 as a method to add more offense to the game and to let aging stars stay in the game longer but now every level of the minor leagues uses the DH. As far as I’m concerned it takes away a lot of strategy. I applaud the National League for sticking to their guns and not give in to people like Hank Steinbrenner who say that the National League needs to get out of the 19^th century.

This brings me to interleague play which is the very thing that has heated up the DH debate. Everyone seems to love it the way it is or they want to eliminate it altogether. For those who did not follow the game before 1997, The American and National leagues coexisted separately only to see each other for spring training, the All Star game and the World Series. Personally I don’t mind interleague play but there shouldn’t be so many games.

The added factor of the unbalanced schedule means you don’t see enough of the other divisions in your league. My suggestion is that maybe you play only a few more games within the division (sorry Red Sox nation but I don’t think we need to see the Yankees as much as we do). One year the Red Sox faced the Braves in as many games as they did the Twins. That is just wrong. My other suggestion is that interleague play consists of one home series and one away series each year. This would put the mystique back as you would only see each NL team once every 16 years. Personally I miss seeing the Royals, Twins and White Sox coming through twice a year.