WHETHER you love or hate the designated hitter rule, you've got to like Tony La Russa's creativity. Gotta love
La Russa’s latest ployWho says the pitcher has to bat ninth?
Anyone who ever played Little League knows the pitcher usually bats third or fourth.
But Todd Stottlemyre didn't bat eighth for the Cardinals against the Astros last night because he hits well. La Russa merely wanted to get a better stick in the No. 9 hole, so that there might be more runners on base when Mark McGwire, who bats third, came up.
Well, it didn't quite work out that way.
Stottlemyre got one more hit than the guy who batted ninth, rookie second baseman Placido Polanco, who got none. McGwire drove in no runs, and Houston beat St. Louis, 5-4.
But it's still a good move, and one we'll probably see more of.
Batting last is not necessarily a shameful spot in the American League. In the league where they use the DH, the nine position is not always the easiest out in the lineup. It's often filled with a "second leadoff" hitter -- a batter who is expected to start rallies with the speedsters and sluggers at the top of the order following him.
It happens in slow-pitch softball, too. The smart coach hides his worst hitter somewhere in the lower middle part of the lineup. The last guy needs to be someone decent, who can help the top get started.
Tactics (or gimmickry?) aside, pitchers batting becomes an issue every year around this time, right after the All-Star game.
IT'S hard to think of anything more stupid than pitchers batting in the midsummer classic. There should be a rule that whenever they come up, they must be pinch hit for, unless there are no other pitchers available to come in. Hey, if David Wells -- the only hurler who batted in Tuesday's game -- only gets to pitch one inning, too bad. If you're American League manager Mike Hargrove, you just gotta live with Roger Clemens coming in an inning early.
With the way the ball was flying around Coors Field, did it really matter who was pitching?
As for the designated hitter rule, I fall into that group of fence-sitters that actually enjoys the fact that one league has the rule and the other doesn't.
I like the tactics involved in deciding whether to pinch-hit for a guy losing 3-2 in the seventh inning. But it's also special to watch aging stars continue to contribute in their later years.
If I had to choose, I'd probably say lose the DH. Reason being, if you extended the DH rule logically, why would you stop at the pitchers? Have offensive and defensive lineups. Why should Rey Ordonez have to bat if you have Butch Huskey on the bench. Baseball could evolve into a game of offensive and defensive specialists, just like football. Rosters would expand to 45 -- 15 hitters, 15 fielders and 15 pitchers. "Playing both ways" would become a rarity, done by a special few like Ken Griffey, Jr.
SO who do you like to hit 62 first? Junior, Big Mac, or Slammin' Sammy?
Whatever happens, there could be a strange but happy by-product. Ironically, all the attention coming from Roger Maris' record being broken could lead to him getting into the Hall of Fame.
The guy won two MVP awards. He was an outstanding right fielder. And when he hit the 61 home runs in 1961, he did it under incredible pressure.
The problem is, Maris' career numbers for home runs (275) and batting average (.260) aren't close to the Cooperstown benchmarks. Maybe after the Oldtimer's Committee sees how much pressure the pursuers have to take in August and September, it will remind them what Maris suffered while taking on the ghost of Ruth and golden boy Mickey Mantle.
And Maris never benefited from the designated hitter rule or expansion pitching.
Dave Reardon is a magazine editor and freelance
writer who has covered Hawaii sports since 1977.
He can be reached via the Star-Bulletin or
by email at dreardon@hmsa.com.
