The Designated Hitter Can Run for President
And hey it’s an election year. 35 years ago this week Ron Blomberg left his glove in the clubhouse and became the first designated hitter in baseball history. Fittingly, he walked in his first plate appearance.
Even though there’s no byline on the piece, I did a quick ranking of the top DHs in baseball history for AOL Sports. I didn’t delve too deep into the numbers (errors or flaws are possible), but I did require that the hitter got at least 30 percent of his career plate appearances at DH. Perhaps the most interesting takeaway: DH just isn’t a very good position, understandably so I guess, but for the most part it’s a bit like listing the best closers at any given time.
David Ortiz has a good chance to be the best one ever in my book, to which you may say ‘hey what about Frank Thomas’, and I’d reply ‘the Big Hurt played like 60 percent of a long career at first and that takes away from his legacy as a DH, but don’t worry that’s probably a good thing.
P.S. Bonus points to the first commenter who trashes the designated hitter rule.
April 9th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
I’m actually in favor of the DH rule, mostly because watching pitchers hit is like watching a quadriplegic try to catch a fly with chopstick. And also because my boy Miggy Cabrera’s probably headed there in a few years.