Harrison Bader, often the Cardinals’ eighth hitter in previous seasons, led off the second inning in the first game. After he singled, I remember thinking: Ugh, the pitcher is coming up.
And then, I had this merry moment of realization: Wait, no! The pitcher is not coming up! Bader is the ninth hitter, there now is a National League designated hitter ... and I won’t have to endure the worst part of a baseball game ever again.
I might be in the minority, especially in this time-honored baseball town of ours. But for all the tradition of pitchers hitting — and the fascinating strategy involving double-switches and sacrifice bunts and such — I disliked the experience of watching a pitcher actually bat. It got in the way of the game. It prevented the flow of an offense, the smooth churning of a lineup. It was a waste of time.
