Why I hate the DH

This finally occurred to me on the road today, and I don't know why it didn't make sense earlier. Normally, in baseball, all nine players in the field have to take a turn hitting as well. The designated hitter (or "DH") rule allows a team to have an extra player hit for the pitcher - usually, pitchers are the weakest hitters on the team. The pitcher gets to pitch, but doesn't have to bat; the DH gets to hit, but doesn't have to play the field when the other team is batting.

When there is no DH rule, managers of baseball teams commonly encounter this dilemma: the game is close, the pitcher has pitched well but it's not clear how much longer he can pitch, and the pitcher's spot in the batting order comes up in a crucial situation. Do you let the offensive opportunity pass by to keep the good pitcher in the game? Or do you take the pitcher out for a pinch-hitter to improve the chances of scoring and then take your chances with a relief pitcher?

And here's the problem in a nutshell - the DH rules says "you don't have to choose". You can choose what to do with your pitcher without any consequence for your offence; you never need to worry about the pitcher's spot in the batting order coming up at a critical time.

What I hate about this is that it's a symptom of a serious problem, which is the belief that we never have to make choices between two good alternatives, or two bad alternatives, or that we can always avoid consequences from the decisions that we make.

Cases in point:

- we think it's important that city workers have the right to strike to support their negotiating position, but when they don't pick up the garbage we don't want it dumped in areas the public accesses;
- once there are dumps in public areas, we don't want rats and vermin, but we don't want chemicals sprayed that will keep them away either;
- we don't show any signs of using less electric power, but we sure don't want nuclear, either because (geez!) it's nuclear or because we can't afford it (even after three years of study and a lot of public subsidy to the only qualified bidder); and we don't want power stations based on any other kind of fuel either, because they'll add incrementally to air pollution even though they're radically more efficient than what they replace. Nonetheless, we'll all be surprised when, mysteriously, there isn't enough power.

Sometimes, you have to accept that letting that pitcher go to the seventh inning will mean you forego an offensive opportunity in the sixth. You can't always just change the rules of the game to avoid the choice, or its consequences.

Blogging light

Chaos reigns. But Joey Votto's back with the Reds, and Doc Halladay is about to come off the DL, so there's always hope.