Page Twelve
,THE SUMMER DAILY
Thursday, July 26, 1973
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DH
closes tale
By MARC FELDMAN
THE DESIGNATED HITTER has not provided all the
remedies for the chronic problems of the American
League-no one expected it would. However, the DH.
has certainly helped the A.L. achieve some sort of parity
with the older and more recently successful National
League.
Evert if the traditionalists and detractors of the desig-
nated hitter rule claim this step toward equality is arti-
ficial and merely temporal, the numbers and facts speak
for themselves.
Over the past decade or so, during which the National
League has won ten of the eleven All-Star games
played, including Tuesday's 7-1 shellacking, the senior
circuit outhit the Americans by between eight and 15
points each year. With this in mind, the July 19 totals
for each league may astound the average fan.
NATIONAL LEAGUE
G AB R HR AVG.
568 38,503 4777 898 .2547
AMERICAN LEAGUE
G AB R HR AVG.
563 38,245 2696 910 .2548
HR AVG
DESIGNATED HITTERS
(A.L. ONLY 140 .248
As these figures show, the designated hitter has not
exactly returned baseball to the hit happy days of the
late Twenties when the entire Major Leagues hit for a
.300 average, but it has accomplished some important
things on the field, in the newspapers, and in the
stands.
The DH has helped revive interest in a league beset
by aged stadia, a lack of superstars, and anemic at-
tendence. Last year, the biggest story around A.L. cities
was how no one in the Eastern Division wanted the win
the pennant and that that no one was capable enough
anyway.
HOWEVER, THIS YEAR, even though no team has
clearly established itself in the East, it has seemed to
the media and the fans that the competition is slightly
more keen and a healthy interest in the belittled national
pasttime has been rekindled. Presently ten teams are
Against
playing above or near the .500 level and the only two
clubs which are not, Cleveland and Texas, have some
legitimate hopes for the future.
The designated hitter rule has allowed more legitimate
batters to take regular cuts at the plate than in the
staid National League. According to last Sunday's Major
League Averages, just 99 National Leaguers had batted
the required 160 times while 118 A.L. batters had quali-
fied. Looking at this statistic in one way, the 99th leading
hitter in the N.L. is Cesar Geronimo of the Reds at .147
but No. 99 in the A.L. is Cleveland's Chris Chambliss,
who weighed in at a comparatively hefty .227.
A side benefit of the DH has been the elimination of
the so called "dead innings." Under traditional baseball
rules, an inning led off by the eighth batter in the lineup
is usually as exciting as your mother's mah jongg game.
The eighth man, typically hitting about .218, leads off
and grounds feebly to short. If Joe Fan hasn't headed
for the refrigerator for a cold one by them, he can watch
the pitcher pop to the third baseman in foul territory.
Then, the leadoff man, yawn -..
ALL THAT'S BEEN changed. The low men in many
American League lineups have played big roles in the
success of their teams this year.
Take two teams familiar to Detroit fans: the Tigers
and the Yankees. The rear guard of the Yankee batting
order is typically catcher Thurman Munson and short-
stop Gene Michael. A year ago this duo combined for a
total of 85 runs batted in, but in 1973, Munson and
Michael have already knocked home 81. Michael, in fact,
has reached a career high in ribbies with 38 so far.
Tiger third sacker Aurelio Rodriguez has been mired
in the low .200s all year and batted in the nether regions
of Manager Billy Martin's batting order. However,
nit gap
thanks to the fact that Ed Brinkman or Mickey Stanley
bat behind him, instead of the impotent bat of a Lolich
or Fryman, Rodriguez has driven in 40 runs and gotten
more fastballs-his specialty-to hit.
ALTHOUGH THE National League still has the super-
stars in Stargell, Aaron, Bench, Bonds, and Seaver,
boasts more .300 hitters, carpeted symmetrical ball
parks, and more fans; an odd sort of parity has been
approached this year. Eventhe most cynical critics of
the radical DH have admitted the rule has helped re-
vive a slumbering sport without revolutioning it.
NEXT TIME YOU glance through a baseball record
book, find the most famous asterisk of all time-the
one next to Roger Maris's name in the "Home Runs,
Season, Player" column. Maris, of course, was the man
to break the second most hallowed record set by Babe
Ruth-60 home runs.
Roger played a few more games than the Babe and
therefore, purists declared, the record did not have the
sanction of God or the Commissioner. Hence, the in-
famous asterisk.
If you look really hard in the record book for the
record for batting average-an unfamiliar name, O'Neill,
.497, will catch your eye. It states, "Unofficial, because
in 1897, and only 1897, walks counted as hits." The rea-
son, I mention Messrs. O'Neill and Maris is to point out
that no positive asterisk exists in the history of base-
ball statistics.
BUT, ALL IS NOT LOST, Bowie Kuhn! We may have
a chance to put one in the books this year besides the
name of Lynn Nolan Ryan.
If Ryan breaks Sandy Koufax' Major League strike-
out record of 382 (which is quite possible at the clip
he's maintained this season) an asterisk should be
placed in the record book because he didn't get to reap
strikeouts from his fellow poor hitting hurlers.
Over the years, pitchers have struck out about 35
per cent of the time and occupants of the other eight
positions, just 15 per cent. This makes Ryan's "K
rations" even more remarkable since this 20 per cent
differential in the whiff department means about 25 or
30 strikeouts to an average pitcher over a season-and
Ryan is no average pitcher.
Sports of The Daily
Brown returns to fold
The word from Carlisle, Pa., is that running back Larry
Brown, Washington Redskin running back extradordinaire and
top player in the National Football League, has ended his 11 day
holdout and is back in the "Over the Hill Gang's" training camp.
Brown, a punctual fellow, arrived in time to take the afternoon
practice .
In Brown's absence, the Redskins acquired classy but moody
Duane Thomas, who yesterday had just an "excellent practice,"
according to Coach George Allen. One wonders if Thomas or
Brown will be the first string running back in the Allen offen-
sive set. It is a safe bet that the Skins won't place both in the
same backfield as Charley Harroway is a superb blocker com-
ing from the backfield. Maybe the Thomas acquisition was
more subtle pressure on Brown to come to terms.
Local boy looks good
Michigan's Bo Rather seems to be a good bet to catch on
with the receiving-thick Champion Miami Dolphins, even though
he garnered only 97 yards through the air in Bo Schembechler's
ground-oriented attack. Don Shula, the architect of Dolphine
fortunes is extremely high on Rather, despite having Paul War-
field, Ron Sellers, I-oward Twilley and Marlin Briscoe in his
stable of established receivers. "Rather is smooth, real smooth,
and he's got plenty of ability," oozes Shula. "He really showed
us something in that first scrimmage."
Major League Standings
AMERICAN LEAGUE NATIONAL LEAGUE
East East
V L Pct. GB -W L Pct. GB
NevoLt. 1- St: Louis 51 45 .531 -
New torit 57 44 .504 - Chicago 51 46 .526 1
#Baltimore46 41 .554 1' Pitt burgt 40 48 .4$9 4
Boston 52 44 .542 2 11Philadelphia 46 51 .474 51 -
Detroit 49 48 .505 6 Montreal 44 51 .463 6"
Milwaukee 47 '49 .490 7v New York 42 51 .452 7'5
Cleveland 35 63 .357 20' West
Oakland West 5Le42t571- Los Angeles 63 37 .630 -
Okad54.5- Cincinnati 5 42 .576 5'-}
Kansas City 55 46 .545 2fSan Frcisco 5643.566 0',
Minnesota 49 47 .510 6 Houston 52 50 .510 12
California 48 48 .500 7 Atlanta 45 57 .441 19
hIaga 49 491 .505 San Diego 33 65 .337 29
Texas 34 61 .358 20'k, Today's Probable PitIchers
Today's Probable Pitchers Pittsburgh (Blass 3-6) at Chicago
Cleveland (Perry 8-14 and strom 1-9) (Reuschel 10-7) preceded by completion
at Baltimore(McNally 9-11 and Cuellar of April 21 suspended game
7-9) - Atlanta (Schueler 5-5 and Niekro 9-5)
California (Ryan 11-12 and Singer at Cincinnati (Norman 8-9 and Grims-
15-5) at Texas (Bibby 3-4 and Clyde ley 10-5)
1-3) Montreal (Renko 9-6 and Rogers 0-0)
Oakland (Blue 9-5 and Holtzman 15- at Philadelphia (Carlton 9-10 and Brett
9) at Minnesota (Kaat 11-9 and Decker 9-3)
4-5) New York (Matlack 7-12 and Koos-
..Chicago (Wood 18-14 and Bahnsen man 8-9) at St. Louis (Gibson 10-9 and
13-9) at Kansas City (Drago 11-9 and Foster 6-5)
Splittorff 12-5) San Diego (Arlin 6-7 and Kirby 6-10)
Milwaukee (Colburn 13-5) at New York at San Francisco (Bryant 14-7 and
(Dobson 6-3) Willoughby 4-5)
Boston (Tiant 12-9) at Detroit (Lolich Houston (Roberts 10-7) at Los An-
9-10 )eles (John 9-5)
AP Photo
DESPITE THE HOME RUN strokes of Bobby Bonds (top), Willie Davis (left) and Johnny Bench,
which uravelled the American League in Tuesday's All-Star contest, the leagues are evening out,
says Daily columnist and Associate Summer Sports Editor Marc Feldman. The Designated Hitter
has evened the score, but you couldn't tell it in Kansas City.