I know baseball purists sometimes disagree about whether having a designated hitter rule constitutes “real” baseball. That, surely, is the province of GD.
I merely wish to know how it happened that the rule exists in half of major league baseball, and not the other half. What was it about the American League that made the DH work there, and not the National League?
The first time owners brought up the idea of a DH officially was in the 1930s and then the NL owners wanted it and the AL didn’t.
The AL adopted it in 1973 because its attendance was dropping a bit more than the NL’s.
Basically, the NL didn’t adopt it because it had a lot of tight-assed owners or purists (depending upon your point of view) in 1973.
The NL hasn’t adopted the DH because no one seems to think it is necessary. Owners in both leagues would like to get rid of the DH because the position tends to be given to veterans who earn higher salaries than what an extra utility infielder or relief pitcher would make.
Because when the DH came along the two leagues were run much more independantly than they are today. Those in the American League decided to make the change and the National League decided not to make it. As you said purists agree with the decision of the National League. I can’t say that I’m enough of a baseball fan to say I’m a purist, but I agree that the DH is a lousy concept.
And, conversely, the player’s union doesn’t want to give up the DH, for the exact same reason.
Let’s not forget that historically, the American and National Leagues have operated independent from one another for much of their history. This has been changing–it started really in 1903 with the advent of the World Series, but it has really picked up the pace only in recent years with interleague play and the abolition of separate umpire staffs.
So the AL adopted the DH in 1973 because back then, offense was at a low ebb and pitching dominated. The result on the field tended to be 2-0 pitching duels and thousands of fans disguised as empty bleacher seats.
Now the pendulum has swung way to the opposite side, with an offensive explosion and a scarcity of quality pitching. You’d think this would make the DH obsolete, except for the previously mentioned players’ union. Personally, I’d love for the AL to get rid of it, but every minor league uses it, so it seems kind of silly to require pitchers to learn a skill that they wouldn’t need unless they made the bigs.