Everyone knows that I love baseball and I feel like that is fairly obvious. However, there is one thing about baseball that I strongly dislike. You might be thinking, "Oh, here she goes again talking about her reasons to not like the Dodgers...", but that is not what I am here to discuss today. Instead, I'd like to express my opinions on why I'm not a fan of the designated hitter, also known as the DH.

If you're reading this, then I'd assume you're a fan of baseball. But just in case, I'll briefly explain what the DH is. There are two leagues in Major League Baseball, the National League and the American League. In 1973, the American League adopted the DH as the designated hitter rule (Major League Baseball Rule 5.11). This rule lets teams have one player, the designated hitter, bat in place of the pitcher. The DH does not have any other role than to hit, whereas in the National League, the pitcher hits. 

Look, I understand why people think that the National League should adopt the DH. I really do. But my stubborn self loves the game of baseball just the way it is. Why should the game be changed? Every year, there are changes made to try and increase viewership of the sport. Americans have short attention spans, so there's been a need to speed up the pace-of-play. And sure, six hour games can be dreadful to watch. I'm not arguing against that, but if the game keeps changing in an attempt to appeal to a wider audience, then is it really even the true game of baseball that they like? Or is it a butchered game that people enjoy?

The DH provides older players or players that aren’t defensively strong with an opportunity to keep playing the game that they love. However, is it fair to let someone earn a roster spot when they're only playing half the game? Does a man deserve to be paid millions of dollars to simply participate for 15 minutes of the game. In a no-hitter, the batters would cycle through the batting order three times. That is three at-bats for the DH, and while the defense is out in the field, they’re able to sit and relax.

Employing a DH is like telling someone to come to work, just for one-hour each day, but they will still get paid as much as the person working eight hour days. Or hiring someone that only has half of the skills that a job may require, and then just handing off those missing responsibilities to someone else. And in some cases, they might get paid more to do less.

What if, in twenty years, kids who are wanting to become baseball players simply grow up wanting to "be a DH" and only focus on hitting. Baseball is an all-around sport that requires both offense and defense. The lack of regard that the DH presents for offensive skills is unfortunate. Kids wanting to be baseball players need to learn how to progress their skills both offensively and defensively, but how are they supposed to do that when some of their idols are only focusing on one of those skills?

There is something special about watching pitchers hit that makes the game more exciting to watch. While many might think the opposite, I personally believe that watching a pitcher hit a home run is a lot more enticing than watching the same guy, who doesn't know how to play defense and/or has no defensive skills, get hits. There is something about strategy that has always been appealing to me; not only in baseball, but in life and every decision that I make. The DH diminishes part of the strategy of the sport, and watching a game in an American League ballpark makes me miss it.

The differing rules between the two leagues provides a gateway for skewed statistics. The team average for an American League team is bound to be higher than that of a National League team. This anomaly between the two teams should be mended, where one league adopts the other league’s rules. It is slightly odd to have separate rules when baseball is one sport. So yes, there is one aspect of the game that I believe needs to be changed. I would prefer for the American League to abolish the DH rather than the National League adopting it, however, it seems that it is inevitable for the DH to be enacted in both leagues sometime in the future. 

The stereotype of baseball is that it's for old white men. But as a young female, I think that the game is perfectly fine the way it is. Baseball is always going to change, but there are some changes that are unnecessary. Introducing the DH to the National League is one of those, and I hope that I can continue to watch Madison Bumgarner home runs for as long as I live.