Quote:
Originally Posted by lukasberger
And for what? To get rid of something that most fans actually like and that only a few people who I'd guarantee have an average age of 50-60 or higher really dislike. MLB wants younger fans, they likely couldn't care less about appeasing a very small handful of older folks who are motivated by nostalgia more than anything.
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As of 2009, and I'd bet still today, most fans
dislike the DH. This is doubly true in NL markets where people are used to games without it and also the pro-NL partisanship leads people to want to view "their" leagues way as the best.
Those of us who hate the DH aren't (generally) motivated by nostalgia: I'm not old enough to have ever seen baseball without the DH existing in one league. We're motivated by wanting a strategic game.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lukasberger
Considering this a bit further, I doubt the NCAA would even care. 99% of NCAA players will never go pro and college baseball isn't a big money making sport to begin with. I bet the NCAA would just deal with losing the couple hundred guys a year that would jump straight to the pros under that sort of rule. In fact college coaches would probably love not losing their top players to the draft as juniors anymore.
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The NCAA would ultra-care. Many, many people play NCAA sports thinking they'll eventually go pro, including some who have no realistic chance and are deceiving themselves. This is strongest in their bigger revenue sports, especially football. It's true in baseball as well, though, if not to the same extent. A lot of players don't graduate, because they don't care about graduating. They're auditioning for the pros. The NCAA would lose so many players if it kept the DH (under my rule that I realize has virtually zero chance of ever actually being adopted, but you're debating what its effect would be) it would be amazing. It would be gone.
And a fair number of international players would skip the Japanese League and similar leagues if, under that rule, they kept the DH, going straight to the American minors instead. Not even most, but enough it would hurt them.
I recognize that the actual adoption of my rule idea is far more a pipe dream than anything that would actually happen. But if it were adopted, I definitely hold it would have the effect I would want, at the very least in the NCAA.
I think in reality there's a stalemate on the DH that will keep the status quo for the foreseeable future. The MLBPA won't agree to take it out of the AL, but the owners don't want to add it to the NL. And though I'd love to see it gone from both leagues, that duality is very likely the most marketable form baseball can have, as well.
Again, though, as "baseball czar" if such a position existed and I were that person (commissioner wouldn't do it, because I'd have to persuade the owners to follow me) I think it would be possible to get the MLBPA to agree to eliminate the DH in the AL by offering not expanded rosters (which wasn't enough in '09 and still wouldn't be), but expansion teams. Two expansion teams, even combined with the end of the DH, lose 15 DH starting spots in the AL, but then create 16 starting spots on the two teams, plus 10 rotation spots and 2 closer spots. And the subs get to be in the majors too, when otherwise they'd be in the minors.
The owners really don't want to expand, so that's pretty much off the table, and I also have to admit that financially, the owners are likely better off with the status quo on the DH than with dumping it in the AL. People have accepted the duality, and to some degree (some limits, because it's costly to get lots of out of market games) get to follow the league whose rules they prefer.