Players eye DH, wild-card changes
Baseball players are open to extending the designated hitter to the National League and to expanding the winner-take-all wild-card playoff to a multi-game series. Management has little interest.
The American League has used the DH since 1972, and there has been more discussion among fans and media of expanding it to the NL.
“It’s gaining momentum, I’ll offer you that,” players union head Tony Clark told the Baseball Writers’ Association of America on Tuesday. “Players are talking more about it now than they have in the past.”
DHs often are high-priced sluggers, a reason players are interested in having the rule cover both leagues.
“Fans like to see offense,” said Boston’s J.D. Martinez, who has DHed in 54 of his 92 games this year.
Not all players agree.
“I lightly lean toward no, just because I’m used to the National League style of play,” Cincinnati’s Joey Votto said. “I find that the American League is a little more basic and the games are longer. That doesn’t excite me. On the other side, I guess I do like the idea of the occasional break and getting to DH.”
Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said change was unlikely.
“I could have made a deal with the MLBPA on extending the DH to the National League,” he said. “I think the most likely outcome at this point remains the status quo.”
MLB began one-game wild-card playoffs in each league in 2012, when the postseason field was expanded from eight to 10. There has been renewed scrutiny of the format because of the AL East race. Boston is 68-30 and on pace for 112 wins, and the New York Yankees are at 62-33, which projects to 105 wins.
“Having series is always better … for a player in a lot of ways than a onegame playoff,” Clark said. He said complications include a schedule that can stretch from late March until early November and division winners not wanting to have three or four offdays before the playoffs.
Cubs fans complain about Harper’s win: Some Cubs fans — and gamblers — are claiming on social media that Bryce Harper “cheated” during the Home Run Derby to beat Chicago’s Kyle Schwarber.
Harper hit 19 homers in the final round of Monday night’s competition at Nationals Park to beat Schwarber by one. Hitting in front his hometown fans with his father pitching, Harper appeared to be running out of time to catch the Cubs slugger before he hit nine homers in his final 10 swings to tie him. Because he hit two homers over 440 feet in the round, Harper earned 30 seconds of extra time that he used to hit the decisive long ball.
The competition rules state that the pitcher has to wait until the previous ball has landed before throwing another one. Video from the event shows Harper’s father, Ron, apparently breaking that rule. Umpires on the field did not intervene.
But that didn’t stop Cubs fans from complaining that Harper cheated or that the event was rigged. The result was also bitter for bettors who put money on Schwarber to win, a population that has increased with expanded legal sports gambling in the United States.