American League never adopts designated hitter

How would baseball have developed from the 1960's onward if the AL never adopted the DH and still forced pitchers to bat?
 
One of my fondest wishes...

Off the top of my head, possibly the 1993 Series might have turned out differently without Paul Molitor's contributions.
 
In all fairness, wouldn't it make sense to get rid of the DH nowadays? I believe the purpose of the DH was to increase offense. If the goal nowadays is to decrease the length of games, should they remove something which artificially inflates offense, at least in the AL?
 
Many pitchers would continue to have their careers ended by batting and baserunning related injuries. Several sluggers will retire earlier than OTL. This goes beyond guys who became full-time DHs, many teams have used the DH as a way to rest veteran players.

Without the massive success of the DH, the league may be less inclined to innovate in the future. You could see an acceleration of baseball's OTL decline as the sport continues to struggle to win over Generation X audiences and adapt to the TV era.

Overall this would have big butterflies for the game, but the details are impossible to predict given the fickle nature of the sport.
 
I think DH discussions are about the closest sports gets to religious fanaticism.

More managerial turnover. Because they are under more scrutiny for PH decisions.

And Edgar Martinez probably makes the HOF without the "He didn't play in the field!" argument.
 
Many pitchers would continue to have their careers ended by batting and baserunning related injuries. Several sluggers will retire earlier than OTL. This goes beyond guys who became full-time DHs, many teams have used the DH as a way to rest veteran players.

Without the massive success of the DH, the league may be less inclined to innovate in the future. You could see an acceleration of baseball's OTL decline as the sport continues to struggle to win over Generation X audiences and adapt to the TV era.

Overall this would have big butterflies for the game, but the details are impossible to predict given the fickle nature of the sport.

While I agree with your analysis, and, as a fan of the game I would hate to see further decline in interest, I would prefer NO DH. My basic objection is that I hate it when the two leagues don't have the same rule set. Possible work around might be having the DH in BOTH leagues. The desire to "adapt" to TV scares the bejeezus out of me. I used to be a GREAT fan of tennis until "adaptation" to TV tuned men's tennis into women's tennis. Now I only watch tennis if there's nothing else to do, and then only women's tennis, and then iff (math term) at least one "babe" playing. Prefer that didn't happed to BB
 
True the AL pitchers don't risk batting/running injuries, but I wonder how that compares to reduced pitching stress from 1/9th of their opposed batters being "easy outs.
Plus starting NL pitchers probably average a few innings per year less than AL starters.

Personally I prefer no DH because it adds more strategy to the game.
When to pull the starter for a PH.
Double switches.
Bunt or swing away.
International walks to get to the Pitcher.
 
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