The 2020 baseball season was weird and short and weird. Among the weirdest was the universal DH. I miss pitchers batting. I miss double switches and I miss pinch hitters and I miss pitchers facing just one batter. In honor of the pitcher batting and hopes of seeing it again, here are my top 10 reasons to embrace the traditional 9 hole hitter.
10. Closers Batting
Above we have 1,201 career saves and 9 career hits. When was the last time you saw a guy with over 300 career saves sliding into a base? Very rarely does it happen, and very really do it go well, but it's still intresting.
9. Old School Pitchers Hitting
How great are these three cards with the flapless helmets.
8. Warm-up Jackets
These seem to have been out of fashion for a while, but how cool is a warm up jacket with your name and number on the back.
7. Hitting DingersChicks dig the longball, from the classic Tim Hudson card, to German Marquez hitting a home run off a position player, to Jon Gray hitting one 467 ft.
6. Bartolo Colon
Speaking of dingers, Topps sure loved the legend of Bartolo Colon, and really who didn't?
5. Pre-Interleague A.L. Pitchers hittingMostly pre-season, although the wonderful weirdness of baseball with Roger Clemens getting his first career hit in his first career at bat in his 13th season in a game in which the Red Sox moved their DH to field, moving the pitcher into the line-up.
April 25th, 1986, Craig Lefferts enters a tie game in the 11th, gives up a run the top of the 12th, then hits a walk-off bomb in the bottom of the 12th, and yes, there is video of it, and it is glorious.
Born without a right hand Abbott still managed 2 career hits and 3 RBI. Also very weird is the amount of cards of him batting even though he never had a regular season plate appearance with the Yankees or Angels.
2. Pitchers Looking Ridiculous
Honestly, do you want cards of fat old guys that don't even own a glove, or stuff like this. You would miss horrible hitting pitchers, you know you would.
1. Pitcher Plays at the PlateMaybe the most famous baseball card photo, Thurman Munson and A's pitcher Chuck Dobson along with an obsolute gem that might be a double rarity, a pitcher running, and a catcher collision at the plate.
There it is, maybe more on the way, but this should really be enough to convince any baseball fan.
Great post. And, yes, possibly the worst outcome of preventing pitchers from batting are less interesting baseball cards.
ReplyDeleteAwesome post. I've always been an AL guy... so the DH was just part of the game. That being said... this post definitely made me reconsider my stance on the topic.
ReplyDeleteI had a similar post idea planned but this one far outdoes mine. I don't care what anyone says, I miss seeing pitchers hit (and run!). Jim Abbott's hitting cards are particularly excellent.
ReplyDeleteThat Craig Lefferts video is amazing! Never knew he did that.
ReplyDeleteI had never seen that photo before, so I question how famous it is.
ReplyDeleteAs for the DH - I don't like it, but casual fans like runs. So it's not going away.
Great post! Love the Koufax. I miss pitchers hitting too this year. Hope it isn't permanent. Pitchers hitting is part of my frankenset, so these cards are some of my favorites.
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