yes, direct quotes are rewording. I'm still waiting to hear what problem your solution solves
Let's view some examples, shall we?
Rabbit hole: "direct quotes are rewording."Truth: Where Smokes has "directly quoted" me, go back and look to see if he didn't provide some part of the quote, and then proceeded immediately after to interpret the quote in some way that wasn't authentic to the original meaning.
Rabbit hole: "waiting to hear what problem your solution solves"Truth:
because you saying the rule needs to be changed isn't a predetermined conclusion? You jumped to solution without evidence that a problem actually exists
Going to have to pull rank here. Forgive me. It's not something that I want to do, but these posts kinda call me out as-if I'm a traitor to the cause.
When one of you can legitimately claim, not in theory but in actuality, to have so loved traditional baseball that you left your Senators or Expos or Nationals (or insert team name here) that were being forcibly removed from playing the game the way it was meant to be played, then, at that point only, will you have walked in my shoes and have the standing to talk about this issue at eye-level with me.
I despise the DH. There's no other way to put it. It robs the game of the strategic element that makes it otherwise so exceptional.
So, I'm sorry if anyone thought they could talk down to me on this one and make any headway.
Having said that, I need to take issue with some of my friends here on two basis.
First, regarding the romantic notion that once you change one rule, you automatically have spoiled the entire game for infinity, no. Just no.
That might sound like sweet music to some itching ears, but it's just not borne out when you look at other games we sports fans in the US commonly enjoy. There have been changes of some significance in football and basketball, some of which are annoying, but some of which have actually seemed to have improved those games. Two point conversions, for instance, have added to the drama of pro football in a big way. Similarly, the institution of the 24-second clock has done so for basketball.
My point in bringing that out is simply that it ought not be an
automatic assumption that a rule change in any given sport dooms the game to becoming a lesser one. Baseball is no exception.
For that reason, I don't hold on to my repugnance for the DH based on some romantic rationale. It's not simply a matter of spoiling a tradition. It's a matter of spoiling an entire major element of the game.
For the same reasons I don't watch pro bowling, essentially, I don't watch American League baseball.
Second, stop beating your head against the wall.
Not just because I don't want you to, but for these reasons:
(a) It's been 40+ years now, and entire generations now don't know a DH-less baseball like you and I do... clearly, you or I can despise it all I want, but it's not going away.
(b) As-is, we have to play x-number of interleague games, and if you’re like me, I cringe to even sit through those. It's a form of baseball, but something is terribly missing... maybe this is overstating it, but it reminds me of the old Bobby Bare song The Merimaid... “from her head to her waist, she was just my taste, but the rest of her was a fish.”
Baseball without both elements, the athleticism AND the cerebral part is just inferior and dissatisfying.
If we can’t have the pure traditional game--and clearly after 40 years we’re just not going to be able to that toothpaste back in the tube--it’s time we found something that, at least, restores some part… hopefully, a large part… of the cerebral game to all of the game.
(c) I may totally disrespect the imposition of the DH, but as an adult… yes, it’s a kids game, but I’m an adult in love with a kids game… as an adult I have a responsibility to be respectful of people who disagree with me. They may not see things the way I see them, and they have that right.
And they have that same responsibility toward me and you, of course.
When respectful people disagree, what comes naturally is to look for where there is common ground, and attempt to craft some concept that capitalizes on where they agree.
(d) I won’t belabor this one b/c I’ve already spoken to it as much as I have… it simply is incoherent, and thus nonsensical, to play one game that has one championship by two different rules. Not only is it not heard-of in any other sport, but for good reason. That championship tournament ends up being a farce as a result. As opposed to conducting a best-of-seven phases experiment to determine which team is superior, what MLB is actually doing is conducting a best-of-seven phases experiment that only tells us which form of the game is more likely to have the desired result.I recognize it’s highly unlikely that the majority reading this thread will let this affect their previous way of thinking to any degree.
But for all I know, there is just one person who has read it and has changed his/her thinking, and that person being a more effective communicator than I, others will eventually re-think… no one can steal that hope, anyhow.
