Gloat Free Baseball Scores (Tuesday, May 1)

[Jack Rabbit]

Baseball Scores

Diamondbacks 5, Nationals 1
Phillies 4, Atlanta 2
Cubs - Reds, ppd, rain
Astros 6, Mets 3
Cardinals 10, Pirates 7
Dodgers 7, Rockies 6
Padres 2, Brewers 0
Marlins 2, Giants 1

Other Scores

Tigers 9, Royals 3
Orioles 7, Yankees 1
Blue Jays 8, Texas 7
A's 5, Red Sox 3
Rays 3, Mariners 1
White Sox 7, Cleveland 2
Angels 4, Twins 0

[Jack Rabbit]

1. Two of the three highest scoring games tonight were in the National League

Cardinals 10, Pirates 7
Dodgers 7, Rockies 6

So, again, who needs the DH?

[El Supremo]

2. Geeze! It's not the runs!

I read that the AL scores on average only one more run per game than the NL. That's 1/2 run per team.

It is the "Oh Shit!" moment that the fans get when their pitcher has to bat in a crucial situation.

[madinmaryland]

3. I don't think any NL fan has had that "oh shit" moment when their pitcher is scheduled to come to

bat. That is something called strategy. Pinch-hit, bunt, etc. Lots of things can happen. The way baseball is meant to be played.

[Auggie]

4. +1,000,000

[Jack Rabbit]

5. Real baseball fans don't get that "Oh shit" moment when the pitcher is scheduled to hit

Especially not in a critical situation. That's an "Oh, boy!' moment because we can't wait to see what's going to happen next.

One more time, with feeling: the DH just dumbed down baseball. It used to be a thinking man's man's game, but no longer.

Don't tell me it wasn't about runs, either. That's how the snake oil salesmen who thought of this perversion of baseball sold it. It falls into the category of the "illegal defense" in the NBA or prohibiting down field contact with a receiver in the NFL. It was put there to satisfy unsophisticated fans who think high scoring makes the game more exciting. For this, they get a half run per team per game.

Charlie Finley, the king of baseball's snake oil salesmen, pushed loud and hard for the designated hitter. He also wanted to allow for designated base runners. He publicly complained about baseball being the only game that didn't allow free substitution. It's a good thing Finlay wasn't smart enough to realize that baseball is the only game played with a ball in which the defense controls it. He might have tried to change that, too.

Just bear in mind that Charlie Finley, who more than anybody else deserves the epithet "the father of the designated hitter," was a man who really didn't like baseball.

[El Supremo]

6. Spell his name right.

It's Finley

The man who changed baseball for the better.

?1320441498

[Jack Rabbit]

7. You're right. I misspelled the @$$hole's name

The @$$hole, who hated baseball, owned one the great teams in baseball history and was such a tightwad that you had to be living in the shadow of the Colosseum to know they played there. I know. I was living in the Bay Area when the @$$hole's team won three straight world titles.

The @$$hole is a forerunner of today's American entrepreneur, the corporate raider. He bought a baseball team and used it as a vehicle to destroy baseball. He treated his players like he owned them, too, and even sold off them off in a "fire sale". He probably thought he earned those trophies all by himself and that Vida Blue, Catfish Hunter and Reggie Jackson had nothing to do with it.

[El Supremo]

8. I'm surprised that no one is calling me out for his similarity to Jeff Loria.

A lot of people hated Charlie O, but he did like baseball. Where did you hear that he wanted to "destroy" it? He played semi-pro himself until he got TB. We had a love-hate relationship with him in Kansas City. When his moving the team to Oakland was only allowed when KC was promised an expansion team, most all was forgiven. That is until he got some good players and won in Oakland and the Royals sucked.

I think he was smart when he used the new free agency rule to his team's advantage. And an even bigger genius when he got the DH.

[Jack Rabbit]

9. Finley hated baseball

I don't care if the @$$hole played the game. I wouldn't care if he had a Hall of Fame career on the field. He still hated baseball.

Finley could not stand the fact that the nature of the game is that there is no free substitution. That and the fact that the defense controls the ball what makes baseball fundamentally different from other American team games played in an arena. Finley wanted to change that. The DH is bad enough, but Finley wanted designated base runners as well. He even kept one Alan Lewis, called the "Panamanian Express," on the roster for the sole purpose of showcasing the idea. He even tried to exaggerate the seriousness of an injury to one of his star players to make sure a roster spot was open for Lewis to fill in the world series.

I'm not saying that Finley had an active, visceral hatred of baseball. Nevertheless, he hated the game because he neither understood nor appreciated its fundamental nature and therefore sought to destroy the game by "improving" it contrary to that nature. It is in the same way that the Koch Brothers, who would proclaim their patriotism while actively working to turn America into a corporate dictatorship in which no member of the lower classes will even have the right to vote, hate America.