Designated Conspiracy?

Did television force the DH to exist?

Designated Conspiracy?

Out of curiosity, I took a look at some of the mainstream media articles that were published in the lead up to the beginning of the Designated Hitter rule.

I came across this interesting Boston Globe article from December 31, 1972:

This part right here is the reason that has been traditionally passed down for the implementation of the Designated Hitter. Or, to put it in numerical terms, the American League had a batting average of .239 in 1972, while the National League had a batting average of .248.

To put that in context, the current MLB-wide batting average in 2026 is .244.

But maybe it wasn’t only about batting average:

Now, you’d think that World Series games would naturally draw sellout crowd. And it did in those days - well, for the most part, that is.

World Series games in Baltimore occasionally struggled to draw a large crowd. For example, game 6 of the 1971 World Series had an attendance of a little over 44,000, compared to well over 53,000 for games 1 and 2. Game 7 drew a little over 47,000 fans, and game 5 of the 1970 World Series famously drew only about 45,000 fans.

But the more interesting question here is the one about the influence of television on the sport.

Sure, The Boston Globe was going to put the blame on the hated Yankees. That’s only natural.

But could it potentially be true that there was pressure from big television to stop pitchers from hitting in hopes of increasing the amount of action in each game?

This is a pretty interesting article in general. Harold Kaese reminds us of the sort of moments we’d miss with the Designated Hitter in place:

And even pinch hitting occasionally created interesting moments:

Above from The Boston Globe, December 31, 1972, page 33

Of course, pinch hitting hasn’t completely disappeared. But there is an interesting point here.

So what do you think? Was it a television conspiracy? Or is this article full of hot air?