I gotta admit: you give me a close game with one or two outs, a close game and a free bag, I'm walking the guy in the eight hole and forcing the opposing manager to either bring the pitcher or pinch hit.

So, the pitcher can get the out three out of four times. What're the odds that you're getting the pitcher out? Nine out of ten? Any fan of Bill James knows that baseball is all about the numbers, and this is just one of those situations.

Do I like it when a pitcher - a Pedro, or Prior/Wood, or Rocket in his prime - challenge every batter because they know that their stuff's un-hittable? You betcha. There's a sadistic side of me that just loves the futility of watching guys trying to hit Pedro's nasty breakers.

(Yeah, I know. DH in the AL. Stupidest. Rule. Ever.

(Aside for your readers: in the American League, the pitcher doesn't hit. You have a Designated Hitter - some guy who only hits, and never plays out in the field. Something about pitchers being fragile, or ineffective, or effeminate, or something...))

Anywho, I think the pitcher who looks at an empty base in a close game against the eight and doesn't think "walk, double-play ball" is either (a) young and stupid, (b) old and stupid, (c) Kerry Wood.

If they didn't allow the picther to hit, cause you know he is the worst and all, maybe it wouldn't be so bad :p

The DH makes baseball dumber.

Not having the pitcher bat removes levels of strategy and thought from the managerial process. Your team's down a run late in the game. Say you're losing 1-0, to make things interesting. Your pitcher's been shutting the other team down, but it's turn to bat, and there's a couple guys on base. Do you pinch hit, and hope your pinch hitter comes through and that your bullpen can keep up the good work? Hope that your pitcher gets lucky (for the Cubs last year, this was the better choice. Some of the pitchers were markedly better hitters than the normal pinch hitting option -- Lenny F. Harris)?

The DH allows players to stay in the league past when they should retire, and it allows one-dimensional players to stick around when they should be cut loose. Part of me loves to see Édgar Martínez come to the plate and smack line drive after line drive. But then I have to look away as he hobbles out of the batters box to first base. Hitting is part of the game, but so is playing in the field.

And to prove I know nothing about baseball:

What is it about pitching that produces lousy hitters? I mean, there's obviously nothing wrong with their arms if they can accelerate a little sack of leather and twine and wood 0-to-90 in the distance between mound and home plate. Haven't there ever been pitchers who were also good hitters? (And if they were, would that mean they'd put someone ELSE in the 8 slot?)

Pitchers tend to be bad hitters because they don't need to be good hitters to make the team. Their main job is to pitch, so 99% of their time goes toward pitching, and any work on hitting gets fit in around everything else. For the rest of the position players, hitting is a much larger part of their job.

So... no naturally brilliant hitters among the ranks of pitchers, either?

Naturally brilliant hitting pitchers are the ones that only make an out three out of every four times.

Hitting a round ball going 80-90 miles per hour with a round bat is very, very hard. Especially because most times that ball isn't traveling straight, but is curving or sinking or...

Two words: Babe Ruth.

I realized it, but it never hit home (no pun intended) until ESPN was doing a story on Bonds' number 661...

Babe Ruth has as many career wins as a pitcher as Kevin Brown.

Best Baseball Player Ever.

Uh... what?

Babe Ruth: 94-46, 2.28 ERA, 488K
Kevin Brown: 200-131, 3.15 ERA, 2,278K

Babe Ruth was a damn good pitcher, but he didn't pitch anywhere long enough to rack up the stats Kevin Brown has.

Well, dammit. That's what the talking box said. And obviously, I have to believe the talking box.

Still, despite my inability to check basic facts that I heard on TV, the point remains that Babe Ruth was both an good (if not excellent) pitcher, and an excellent hitter.

::grumble:: Stupid fact-checking friends... ::grumble::

Cool. I had thought Babe Ruth was a pitcher, but couldn't remember for sure. But luckily, I have baseball friends to look things up FOR me. Pure bliss for the professional looker-upper! :)