PITTSBURGH — Name the greatest hitting pitchers of all time.
I'll start:
Babe Ruth and Shohei Ohtani.
OK, so that was a cheap way to get you into a column about the start of the universal designated hitters in MLB this week and the end of hitting pitchers, but I'm not going to apologize.
It is a sad time for me.
I get why baseball is going to the DH in both the American League and National League this season, presumably for good. Most pitchers can't hit at all or even bunt, for that matter. Pitchers have slashed .148/.188/.189 since baseball was integrated in 1947, according to Fox Sports. Pitchers have contributed to the game's ever-rising overall strikeout rate, which has jumped from 16.4% in 2005 to 23.2% last season. Fans are bored by strikeouts.
I also get the universal DH from a practical standpoint. No other sport has a different set of rules for its teams. It's ridiculous, if you think about it. I had hoped the AL would eliminate the DH, which it has been using since 1973, but I knew that wasn't going to happen. The players wouldn't have allowed it. Most DHs are older players who are making big money. It is the highest-paid position in the game, an annual average of nearly $7.4 million, according to spotrac.com.
I get all of that.
But I don't have to like it.
I loved the strategy of the NL game. Say a game is scoreless after six innings with both pitchers dealing. The visiting team puts a couple of runners on base with two outs in the top of the seventh with the pitcher coming up. Does the manager pinch-hit for him? Tough call, right? A fun call to second-guess, either way.
I know, I might be reaching.
How many pitchers go six innings these days?
I've always believed a pitcher can help himself if he can put a ball in play, just as he can help himself if he can bunt and field his position. Bob Gibson and Don Drysdale come to mind. The incomparable Gibson had a lifetime batting average of .206 and hit 24 home runs in his spectacular career. Drysdale hit seven home runs in 66 at-bats in 1958 with a .852 OPS and batted .300 in 130 at-bats in 1965 with seven home runs and a .839 OPS.
Gibson and Drysdale weren't just Hall of Fame pitchers. They were Hall of Fame ballplayers.
The Pirates have had their share of good-hitting pitchers. Rick Rhoden was a career .238 hitter. No opposing pitcher wanted to face him. Don Robinson hit .231. No pitcher wanted to see him at the plate, either. Much more recently, Steven Brault batted .333 in 2019. The Pirates actually thought of trying him as a two-way player. Who knows? Maybe he could have been another Ohtani. OK, or maybe not.
Some of my best memories from Pirates games involve pitchers who delivered big hits.
Heavily hyped Gerrit Cole had a two-run single in his first at-bat in his MLB debut in June 2013, part of his electrifying night against the San Francisco Giants. The Pirates won, 8-2, in front of a crowd of 30,000-plus at PNC Park. I'm guessing no one who was there has forgotten it.
Go back even further. Memorial Day, 1974. The late Ken Brett took a perfect game into the ninth inning of the first game of a doubleheader with the San Diego Padres. Fred Kendall — father of Jason Kendall, who would be the Pirates catcher years later — ruined Brett's bid for history with a leadoff single but hardly ruined Brett's day. Brett didn't just win that game, 6-0. He came back in the second game and had a two-run, pinch-hit triple in the seventh inning to lead the Pirates to an 8-7 comeback win. It was one of my favorite days at Three Rivers Stadium.
There also is one bad memory of a pretty good-hitting pitcher at Three Rivers. Philadelphia Phillies starter Randy Lerch hit not one home run, but two off Robinson to eliminate the Pirates from playoff contention on the next-to-last day of the 1978 season. I remember the Pirates took the 10-8 loss hard. So did the crowd of nearly 30,000.
RIP, hitting pitchers.
I'm going to miss you.
