The Designated Hitter Rule at 50

The DH rule introduced in the American League in 1973 and what its universal adoption in 2022 meant

The History

The designated hitter rule -- allowing a batter to hit for the pitcher without requiring the pitcher to take a fielding position -- was adopted by the American League in 1973 and resisted by the National League for fifty years. The universal DH adoption in 2022 ended the fifty-year experiment in divergent baseball. The accounts of the resistance and the eventual adoption document what the rule meant to each side of the debate.

The Impact

The measured impact of universal DH adoption: the National League offensive statistics have increased in the ways that replacing pitcher hitting with designated hitter production predicts. The pitchers who had developed hitting skills in the NL system have been freed from an obligation that the AL pitchers never had. The double switch strategy that NL managers had developed as a specific skill has become unnecessary.

On Deck News Coverage

The On Deck News covers the DH rule at fifty because the accountability journalism of baseball history requires examining the most significant rule change in the sport's modern era at the milestone that makes the long-term assessment possible.

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