Tag: USA Today

The Designated Hitter Debate and My Premier as a Cited Source in Sports

Baseball was my introduction to sports as it is and has been for so many Americans. It was also how I first had remarked in a national media publication.

I have grown away from the game for multiple reasons which I’ll spare you. Nevertheless, I’m a National League fan…and don’t like the designated hitter. That hasn’t changed after 23 years in an American League market.

I went so far with my DH disgust as to run a petition website for a few years – Abolish the Designated Hitter from Major League Baseball. That obviously went nowhere.

I don’t remember when I shuttered that site, but before that happened I had a reporter from USA Today contact me, looking for DH remarks, The article wouldn’t run until the Sydney Olympics in la the late baseball season…

So… I did an email exchange and that satisfied the writer. I had no clue as to how my words would be presented.
Right next to one of MLB’s best managers and a part of one of the motor memorable monologues by a major film actor.. How about that.?

“I think there should be the same rule for both (leagues), and I’d vote for cutting the DH. … I think you see more of the total game (in the NL). There are a lot of parts of the game that are really beautiful that you don’t see that often in the AL … a lot of the offensive and defensive things you use to make or stop a single run.”
— Tony La Russa, manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, who managed Oakland and the Chicago White Sox in the AL.

“I personally am tired of the game being stacked in the batter’s favor. With expansion having diluted pitching talent around the game, you’ve seen run production increase to levels that went through the roof. … (Also), it really gets rid of one of the challenges of baseball — managing the roster during a game. …
“(In the Braves-Mets playoffs of 1999) you saw a chess match between Bobby Cox and Bobby Valentine as they had to manage their batting orders and pitching staffs along with bench players to keep competing. It was artwork and a prime example of how the sport can be a head game.”

— John Fontana, 24, of Palm Harbor, Fla., who has run an anti-DH Web site for five years. (http://abolishthedh.stonegauge.com)

“Well, I believe in the soul … the small of a woman’s back, the hanging curveball, high fiber, good Scotch. That the novels of Susan Sontag are self-indulgent, overrated crap. I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. I believe there ought to be a constitutional amendment outlawing Astroturf and the designated hitter.”— Crash Davis, fictional minor leaguer played by Kevin Costner in Ron Shelton’s classic baseball movie, Bull Durham.

Renewing the DH debate, USA Today, 09.06.2004

My remarks may only bring disagreement, but the fact here is holy shit I’ve been quoted for hockey many times since and in many media publications, but my words were never aligned with sport and pop culture might like this. And likely never will be again.