The National League Wants to Get Rid of the DH Again Because Baseball Was Getting Too Fun

I wouldn't have believed you if you told me there would be something that would get me thinking about the 2021 baseball season just days after I had my heart ripped out of my chest yet again, but this did it.

I fought the designated hitter for a long time. I'm a boomer at heart when it comes to a few things and I didn't want to see this newfangled hitter-only fake position come to the National League, where things were done the way God intended. "That's not baseball," I sheepishly thought to myself for many years.

And then I watched it for a season.

There's no way I can go back to watching 11 percent of the Braves' lineup be an automatic out again. We got to watch Marcell Ozuna smack dingers all over the yard this season and now the Braves might not even seriously attempt to re-sign him if the DH goes away — he is an absolute liability in the outfield.

Just in the Braves' case, you replaced the pitcher's spot in the lineup with a guy who hit .338/.431/.636 with 18 HR and 56 RBI in 60 games. And even if you don't end up with a top-flight DH on your roster, it gives you a chance to keep guys in the lineup while giving them a night off in the field and the games are just so much more fun to watch.

I need all the decision makers to figure this one out because if we're being completely honest, I didn't hate a shortened baseball season, either. We should obviously never do 60 games again, but going back to watching 162 baseball games in six months with a pitcher hitting would be tough — and this is coming from someone who absolutely loves the sport.

I get why the owners wouldn't necessarily want to add another $20-30 million in payroll, but it would stand to reason that would be more than evened out by getting younger people involved in the game by making it more entertaining. And baseball is doing fine, but if one league is going to play this way, then both need to.

I fought it for as long as I could, but we need the DH.