When Pitchers Hit Well
A dying art
When Pitchers Hit Well
It’s common to hear younger generations of baseball fans wonder why in the world we ever let pitchers hit in the first place. Cries of “automatic out” and “predictable bunt” echo.
Of course, it wasn’t always like that. As a matter of fact, pitchers at bat and on the bases have provided us with some of the most memorable moments in baseball history.
And, no, I’m not just talking about Babe Ruth and Shohei Ohtani.
As you might already know, I’ve been slowly going through the 1975 World Series again. Here’s my report on the first game:
Luis Tiant, of course, was famous for his entertaining hitting and base running during that game. It’s the sort of thing you’d never see these days, with all the designated hitters and all.
It started off with a base hit for Tiant. Tiant then had a crazy time trying to run the bases, culminating in him scoring a run despite forgetting to touch home plate.
And, as you can imagine, Tiant was the big story in The Boston Globe the next day:
By forcing the designated hitter rule on all teams, are we missing out on something? Surely nothing like this will ever happen again, right?
What do you think?
I feel like I shouldn't have an opinion growing up as a fan of an A.L. team, but it does seem like baseball is getting rid of all the quirkiness that made some of us nerds love it. It's all subjective, of course, but it's kind of wild that we're still tinkering with the rules of a game that's been around for 150 plus years.