# What is the difference between a DH and a pinch hitter? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [July 25, 2009, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-between-a-dh-and-a-pinch-hitter/504185 "2009-07-25T01:31:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-between-a-dh-and-a-pinch-hitter/504185/21 "2009-07-27T03:51:02Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Why does baseball have 2 sets of rules? I don’t know of any other pro sport that works that way. > > A few years ago baseball got rid of the AL and NL presidents and now the umpires are merged as well. So why do they insist on 2 sets of rules? The straightforward answer is that it’s tradition. Baseball started as two leagues, and althought it has changed into one league in terms of organization and administration, it remains an important marketing point to differentiate between the two “leagues.” It matters to the fans, so MLB makes it so. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-between-a-dh-and-a-pinch-hitter/504185/22 "2009-07-27T05:04:27Z")
Another point, by the way: NL and AL teams occasionally play each other, in exhibition games or in the World Series. In each game, the home team’s rules are used, meaning that sometimes an AL team doesn’t get to use a DH, or an NL team does get to. In such cases, a player primarily kept for use as a pinch hitter will be assigned as the DH, or vice-versa, so in that sense, they’re interchangeable. Baseball also has the oddity, compared to many sports, that ground rules are common. I don’t think there are any two ballparks with exactly the same dimensions, and there are also sometimes ground rules about things like how the stadium infrastructure affects whether a ball is fair or foul. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-between-a-dh-and-a-pinch-hitter/504185/23 "2009-07-27T11:14:57Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Another point, by the way: NL and AL teams occasionally play each other, in exhibition games or in the World Series. Plus 15 or 18 interleague games per year. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-between-a-dh-and-a-pinch-hitter/504185/24 "2009-07-27T16:24:19Z")
I thought a lot of the old time “purist” fans don’t like the DH. It also leads to a big change in strategy since teams no longer have to pull a pitcher for a pinch hitter. The pitching changes have nothing to do with batting in the AL. (except maybe in rare cases) ---
**Author:** ![Flymaster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c4cdca/32.png) [@Flymaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flymaster)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-between-a-dh-and-a-pinch-hitter/504185/25 "2009-07-27T17:11:40Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > It’s not really that complicated. > > 1. You can replace the DH with another DH. > 2. The DH can switch to playing a fielding position but then you don’t have a DH anymore. > 3. If the PITCHER switches to playing a defensive position, you don’t get to have a DH anymore. > 4. If a player who is already playing a defensive position begins pitching, you don’t get to have a DH anymore. > 5. No matter what happens, the DH’s spot in the batting order never changes. **If you lose the right to use a DH the pitcher is hitting in that spot**. > > Like the infield fly rule, it’s perhaps easiest to understand the rule if you think about WHY it is written the way it is. The gist is that you cannot monkey with the lineup to exploit the DH rule to get hitters in and out of the lineup. The DH can only hit for the pitcher, period. You were doing so well until the end of number 5. Anyone can hit in that spot. If the pitcher moves to right field, the new pitcher comes in to the game in the RF’s lineup position. The original pitcher, now RF, bats in the DH’s spot, while the pitcher bats in the RF’s spot. So a team can lose the DH and a pitcher will never be in the DH’s lineup slot. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-between-a-dh-and-a-pinch-hitter/504185/26 "2009-07-27T19:03:19Z")
Be gentle. Longtime AL fans tend to forget how the double switch works. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-between-a-dh-and-a-pinch-hitter/504185/27 "2009-07-27T19:05:03Z")
> [@Flymaster](#): > > You were doing so well until the end of number 5. Anyone can hit in that spot. If the pitcher moves to right field, the new pitcher comes in to the game in the RF’s lineup position. The original pitcher, now RF, bats in the DH’s spot, while the pitcher bats in the RF’s spot. So a team can lose the DH and a pitcher will never be in the DH’s lineup slot. Ah yes, you are right. The relevant rule is: _Once the game pitcher is switched from the mound to a defensive position this move shall terminate the Designated Hitter role for the remainder of the game._ So it appears in this case the (new) pitcher would be batting elsewhere, since he would, by necessity, be replacing the right fielder. ---
**Author:** ![Flymaster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c4cdca/32.png) [@Flymaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flymaster)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-between-a-dh-and-a-pinch-hitter/504185/28 "2009-07-27T19:31:36Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Ah yes, you are right. The relevant rule is: > > _Once the game pitcher is switched from the mound to a defensive position this move shall terminate the Designated Hitter role for the remainder of the game._ > > So it appears in this case the (new) pitcher would be batting elsewhere, since he would, by necessity, be replacing the right fielder. Right. In fact, it doesn’t even take a double switch. The pitcher will very RARELY bat in the DH’s spot in the order, even if you lose the DH in a conventional way. CF 3B 1B DH LF RF SS 2B C That’s your lineup. Your catcher gets hurt, but your DH is your backup C. DH moves to Catcher, your new batting order is: CF 3B 1B C LF RF SS 2B P The actual physical human being that is your DH can never move in the batting order, and the letters DH can never move in the batting order. But when you lose the DH, the letter P will very rarely overwrite the letter DH in the batting order. This generally only happens when a manager screws up and writes in 1B twice on his official lineup card, and DH on his own reference card. Then the P will start the game batting in place of the theoretical, but unofficial, DH on the manager’s personal lineup card. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-between-a-dh-and-a-pinch-hitter/504185/29 "2009-07-28T05:37:30Z")
> [@Fiddle\_Peghead](#): > > What shenanigans? I also want to know the answer to this. I’m unfamiliar with what the NL does. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-between-a-dh-and-a-pinch-hitter/504185/30 "2009-07-28T07:40:57Z")
> [@](#): > > What shenanigans? In short, any of the substitutions or lineup-changes intended to cause the pitcher to bat less. I wouldn’t have a hope of remembering how most of them work, but I know I’ve seen some pretty complicated ones. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-between-a-dh-and-a-pinch-hitter/504185/31 "2009-07-28T08:05:42Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > There’s Rugby Union and Rugby League, too … Well, yes, but those are two completely different games, unlike the AL and the NL. It’s not like Major League Baseball, where the two leagues sometimes play each other, and where the winners of each meet in the final series at the end of the year. Rugby league teams only play other rugby league teams, and the same applies to union. While individual players do switch from one code to the other (and sometimes back again), the rules are very different. And the most obvious difference, so fundamental that even someone who’s never watched the game before would probably notice, is that each code uses a different number of players. A rugby league team fields 13 players at any one time, while a rugby union team fields 15. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-between-a-dh-and-a-pinch-hitter/504185.md?page=1)