And I for one agree with the comparison. The DH is un-American!
@Jazzhead Are you calling Connie Mack un-American, then?
It was
Mack, then the owner/manager of the Philadelphia Athletics, who first proposed a designated hitter to bat in place of a pitcher in the lineup . . . in 1906, when (so the story goes) he got tired of watching pitchers like Hall of Famers Eddie Plank and Chief Bender swinging at pitches as though they had cardboard bats.
Mack's idea went nowhere until 1928---when the
National League's president, John Heydler, advocated for the DH but the
American League turned it down. The National League even went far enough as to try it in a few spring exhibitions that year but ultimately rejected it.
In the late 1960s---especially after the Year of the Pitcher in 1968---the designated hitter began making a few noises.
Both leagues tried it in spring training 1969, in select games, but while the two major leagues decided not to stay with it at that time the AAA International League and four other minor leagues brought the DH in to stay.
That caught the attention of Oakland A's owner Charlie Finley, who thought the DH might be a way for the American League to solve two problems with a little more run production: its slightly dwindling attendance, and the fact that American League pitchers including his own for the most part couldn't hit with garage doors. In 1972, the Mustache Gang's pitching staff hit a collective .165 with a .198 on-base percentage and a .203 slugging percentage. (The only A's pitcher who could hit even a little bit, really, was Hall of Fame relief pitcher Rollie Fingers, who actually hit .312---six hits in nineteen at-bats.) The rest of the American League's pitching staffs didn't hit much differently. (The 1972 Orioles, for example, featured a pitching staff who hit a collective .155.)
Strangely enough, considering they were usually about as compatible as a cobra and a mongoose, commissioner Bowie Kuhn agreed with Finley. Kuhn agreed to let the American League try the DH in 1973. Yankee first baseman/right fielder Ron Blomberg became the first American League designated hitter to bat in a regular season game---on Opening Day 1973, Blomberg worked a full-count walk off Luis Tiant his first time at the plate. In year one of the experiment the American League collectively out-hit the National League, and it wasn't long before the AL decided to make the DH permanent and just about all the minor leagues---even teams affiliated to National League clubs---adopted it.
And, after a few years of the American League out-drawing the National League at the turnstiles, the National League got very close to adopting the DH. They had a yes-or-no vote on it in 1980. And it looked at first as though the National League would go for it---until Kuhn advised them the change wouldn't come until 1982. That's when things got interesting and dicey:
* Phillies vice president Bill Giles wasn't sure how owner Ruly Carpenter wanted him to vote, and couldn't contact Carpenter at the time of the vote because Carpenter was on a fishing trip and
incommunicado.
* Pirates general manager Harding Peterson was instructed to side with the Phillies. Oops.
* The Braves, the Mets, the Cardinals, and the Padres voted for the DH.
* The Cubs, the Reds, the Dodgers, the Expos, and the Giants voted against. (Which showed how aware the Reds were of their own history: the DH made its first World Series appearance in 1976, when it was in place for both opponents, as it would stay until 1986. The Reds swept the Yankees, and one of the Reds' best hitters in that series was their first baseman Dan Driessen who'd been named the team's DH for the entire Series and, as I said in my original essay, was technically the National League's first-ever designated hitter. And having that DH sure didn't stop the Reds from sweeping the Yankees. If anything, it might have
helped the Reds---on an even field, the well-experienced Big Red Machine overmatched the Yankees who'd just returned to pennant competitiveness in the past couple of years but didn't have the Reds' offensive firepower.)
* The Phillies, the Pirates, and the Astros abstained.
* The National League's most vocal supporter of the DH at the time of the vote was Cardinals general manager John Clairborne. Five days after the vote, Clairborne was canned and manager Whitey Herzog was named to be the team's general manager as well.
National League teams haven't addressed the DH since. The leagues were merged into MLB and ceased to be separately operating leagues in 2000.
