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  Follow us as each week as our best writers from around the Bloguin Network take aim at each other and square off on anything and everything baseball from "who was better, Mays or Mantle" to "Should MLB have a salary cap?"
Pick a side and agree or disagree. Take part in the debate by posting a comment giving your own opinion. There are no holds barred and nothing is held back in the "The Great Bloguin Baseball Debate."
Today's Debaters are:
Matt O'Donnell, Fenway West
William Yoder, The Nats Blog
Today's Topic is: Is MLB better with or without the DH?
MLB IS better with the DH
By Matt O'Donnell, Fenway West: A Boston Red Sox Blog
 The DH makes the game more interesting. Fans want to see offense pure and simple. Where are the baseball purists clamoring to go back to the Dead Ball Era?
Pitchers are not good hitters; half of them can't even get a bunt down. Who wants to watch a pitcher continually strike out and be forced out of a game early because the team needs to pinch hit for him? In 2008 the combined batting averages for NL pitchers was .139, who wants to watch that? How many times have you seen your team start a rally only to have the pitcher come up and take away the momentum with a bunt or make a pathetic swing at an outside pitch to end the inning?
American League games are shorter. MLB games are close to three hours in length and National League games take longer because of the delays for pinch hitters.
Decision making by the manager is not a factor. The theory that the manager is more involved in National League games is not really true. Anyone who has any baseball knowledge at all knows when to pinch hit for a pitcher and when to have the pitcher bunt. A.L managers have to use more strategy in picking their DH since the stereotypical power-hitting DH is a thing of the past. Most teams rotate two or three players in the designated hitter spot. Having a DH actually gets the manager more involved in the game because he can use pinch hitters whenever he wants and won't have to save them to hit for pitchers.
The DH is good for the business of baseball. More offense means more fans and more ticket sales. The DH also allows teams to keep players longer.
Hall of Famer, Tony Gwynn on the DH - "Now that I'm coaching at San Diego State - we have a DH in college baseball - I like having that extra offensive guy in my lineup and the extra possibilities it gives me (like giving a guy a "day off" by making him the DH). I realize a lot of fans don't like the DH, but it's a chance for a guy like Rickey Henderson to play another year. It's great for players who've had success in the game, but maybe can't take the grind of playing a full season at the end of their careers. It allows them to stay in the game - and that's a good thing." - Matt O'Donnell, Fenway West
MLB IS NOT better with the DH
By William Yoder, The Nats Blog: The Nats Blog is a blog for people who believe being a Nationals fan today means being there for the start of something special. The Nats Blog looks at baseball from an organizational and sabermetric view and always tries to bring Nats fans the best and brightest content possible.
 "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 (Kevin Costner) in Bull Durham (1988)
Allow me to paint you a picture, pre Crash Davis.
The year was 1972. The arcade game, Pong, had just revolutionized teenage lifestyle, the price of gas was 55 cents a gallon, and the song Layla was on the top of the charts. Football and baseball teams shared their venues in big, ugly, multi-purpose stadiums, and the stars of the day like Hank Aaron, Billy Williams, Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, Willie Stargel and Johnny Bench were all in the National League.
Baseball, particularly the American League, was in a crisis of offensive drought at the time. Just three years earlier Major League Baseball had lowered the pitchers mound after the Year of the Pitcher had demolished offense from the game. The American League had only hit .230 and the man they call Yaz had just led the American League in batting with a whopping .301 batting average.
Furthermore, American League owners were in a bind. Football and Basketball were surging as popular sports across the country and all of the intriguing players and storylines were located in the National League. Attendance was as low as batting average, and the all-powerful New York Yankees were at a forgettable point in their franchise. To make things worse for owners, the National League had rebounded much better after the Year of the Pitcher and the lowering of the mound. Pittsburgh had led the National League in team batting average with a .274 mark while the American League leaders, Kansas City, trailed at an embarrassing .255 mark. The entire National League hit nine points better than the American League and had topped them in batting over the last nine seasons, and in 18 of the last 20.
The American League owners made the decision; in 1973 they would institute the Designated Hitter to boost batting and attendance.
It worked...Attendance shot up 17 percent in 1973 and the National League to this day has not topped the American League in batting since, not in 36 years.
One can argue that at the time the designated hitter was the right move for baseball. In many ways it helped save the American League and brought hitting back to the sport. However, even as the results may have pleased many, even at the time people were not thrilled with the methods, and now that hitting is dominating baseball like never before, most question the point.
Today team batting averages have jolted past those of the early 70's, as we have seen, home runs are flying out of the smaller ball parks, and new offensive superstars have dawned baseball in the last 10 years unlike any we have seen since the 30's and 40's. Hitting is back, regardless of extra hitters, and all the DH is doing is causing mix-ups and problems.
A main problem that arises today from the poor ownership of yesterday is that it causes the two leagues, which compete for the same championship, to form their teams completely differently. A great National League team could build their team around having a deep bullpen and a shallow bench, with only defensive replacements waiting in the shadows. How is that team supposed to adjust in the World Series when they have no competing DH to match the American League teams. It's not fair.
Another example would be an American League team that relies on two hitters, both of whom can only defensively play first base. The club can mash its way to the World Series but then is at a serious disadvantage when they get there. The rule simply puts teams in a situation where they need to form their team accordingly and when they meet in the middle it gets ugly.
Of course, to remedy this situation the National League could enable the DH just as easily as the American League could abolish it. But why should the National League be forced to adopt the same mistake the American League made in the first place? Logically the DH makes very little sense. Pitchers are the worst hitters so you pick a player who always hits for them, ok, but catchers are largely bad hitters too, so are some middle infielders, why aren't their three DH's then? Or unlimited DH's (barring roster size).
I think it's time for baseball to make the change back to life without the DH. They built it to bring offense back into the game, but they have clearly overcorrected the problem. The DH most likely helped enable the Steroid Era by allowing more one-dimensional players into the game, and with hitting clearly back to where baseball wanted it to be, it is no longer important to designate a spot for an extra hitter.
"I screwed up the game of baseball. Baseball needed a jolt of offense for attendance, so they decided on the DH. I never thought it would last this long." - Ron Blomberg [the first DH ever] in The Journal News (April 5, 2003) - William Yoder, The Nats Blog
- For a complete archived list of all our debates please visit "The Great Bloguin Baseball Debate" HOME PAGE.
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