It was more than a quarter-century ago but Bobby Bragan, a baseball lifer who has touched all the bases–and more–remembers it as if it were yesterday. Bragan was president of the Texas League when Lee MacPhail of the Rules Committee called and asked if he would have the teams in his league experiment with what was then a revolutionary concept, a 10th player.
“Sure, Mr. MacPhail, we’ll try it,” Bragan said.
“We liked it,” Bragan recalled. “It retained excitement. The game bogs down when the pitcher is scheduled to hit. That’s when a lot of fans go to the restrooms or the concession stands, because they know nothing is likely to happen.”
And so in 1973, the American League gave birth to the designated hitter. The DH would bat for the pitcher. Less than five years later, it was adopted by all the minor leagues, from Triple A to the rookie leagues. Then as now, only the National League refused to comply.
Bragan, 80, has a wonderful baseball history. He managed four big-league clubs and before that was a reserve catcher with the Brooklyn Dodgers when Jackie Robinson was breaking in.
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Bragan currently works with the Texas Rangers’ public relations department. An excellent speaker and highly respected in the community, he makes 200 appearances a year for the Rangers in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. Most of his listeners are unaware he is the father of the DH.
MacPhail, now retired and living on Long Island, was asked Friday during a telephone interview what would have happened if Bragan had not endorsed the DH.
“I really don’t know,” MacPhail said. “We probably wouldn’t have adopted it. Or maybe we would have tried it in another minor league.”
In explaining his support for the DH, the astute Bragan said the pitchers were an automatic out. With few exceptions, they usually struck out.
“People like to see hitting,” Bragan observed. “When they go to a game they like to watch batting practice, see the ball go over the fence. They enjoy that a lot more than infield practice.”
The DH has provided professional baseball with its longest-running controversy; it upsets what previously had been a delicate balance between the offense and defense. Because of the DH, a poor but good-hitting fielder doesn’t have to carry a glove. He is no longer a defensive liability but remains in the lineup as a pinch hitter for the pitcher.
About 10 years ago, a slight majority of NL owners favored adopting the DH. For some reason, a formal vote never was taken, and both leagues continued on their separate courses. For example, the DH is used when the AL clubs are at home during the World Series, and more recently, in interleague play.
If a vote had been taken in Seattle last week when the owners held their quarterly meeting, as many as three-fourths of the big-league clubs would have approved elimination of the DH. But now it has nothing to do with whether it hurts or helps the game. It is about money.
The DH is usually a veteran and highly paid player. The average salary of a DH is $2.1 million, almost $1 million more than that of the average position player. If the DH is abolished, that roster spot would be taken by a younger player who probably would be earning only slightly more than the $170,000 minimum. Each of the 30 clubs would be cutting their annual player payrolls by as much as $2 million.
You can guess the rest. Don Fehr, the executive director of the Players Association, won’t go for it. Fehr’s assignment is to increase, not lower, salaries. Because the union must approve all rule changes, the DH will be with us into the next century. Fehr is also aware of the numbers: Sixty percent of his members are position players, some of whom have the potential to prolong their careers as DHs.
Like many others in baseball’s older set, Bill Rigney, 60 years in the game, believes the DH should be abolished. “It reduces managerial strategy and takes the fan out of the game,” Rigney said. “It does provide a little more action, but we now have so many big home run hitters, we have more than enough action.”