I was watching a fantastic baseball game between the Red Sox and Diamondbacks yesterday. It was a classic pitching match-up between young up and comer Daisuke Matsuzaka and grizzled vet and future hall of famer Randy Johnson.

But something unfortunate kept happening in the middle of the game.

Dice-K and the Big Unit were forced to hit. If you could call that pathetic display of attempted athleticism "hitting".

Johnson looked like Manute Bol on hockey skates when trying to hit Matsuzaka's array of pitches. And Dice-K was equally overmatched, flailing away like a four year old trying to swat flies when the Unit would unleash a slider.

It wasn't enjoyable to watch. It was pathetic.

I grew up in Montreal watching National League baseball, and was convinced that the Designated Hitter was a silly American League creation.

But since moving to an American League city, I have come to realize that pitchers hitting makes absolutely no sense.

I will give you three reasons which absolutely and unequivocally prove my point. Here they are:

1. Pitchers Don't Practice Hitting:

Many pitchers are good natural athletes, who actually could be decent Major League hitters. But hitting a Major League pitcher does not just come naturally. It comes from years of practice and learning how to hit in the minor leagues.

To build my case, I will cite to Atlanta Braves pitcher Tim Hudson.

Hudson is a career .132 hitter in 182 at-bats. He strikes out over one third of the times he comes up to the plate. He has 7 career extra-base hits and no career homeruns.

Why do I mention Hudson? Does anyone remember that in his senior season at Auburn University, Hudson, an outfielder and pitcher, hit .396 with 18 Homeruns and 95 RBI in 65 games. He was a college All-American as both a pitcher and an outfielder.

So why doesn't Hudson hit at least .220 in the Major Leagues with a couple of home runs a year?

Because, he never practices hitting. Since 1997, Hudson has focussed on pitching. And in the ten years since he was an All-American centerfielder, Hudson has only hit a handful of times. And even in games where he is hitting, he is focussing on pitching.

Why would we pay to watch guys who have not hit for years wield a bat unsuccessfully against the highest caliber pitchers in the world?

I would much rather watch David Ortiz or Travis Hafner hit than Derek Lowe or Zach Duke.

 2. The "Strategy Aspect" of Pitchers hitting is overrated:

People often argue that pitchers should hit because it increases the strategy in the National League game.

That is true to a small extent, but even the strategy that is employed is not enjoyable to the baseball viewer.

Let's go over some of these strategies that are employed because pitchers hit in the National League:

Intentionally walking the 8th hitter: - Because of the no DH rule in the National League, not only are we forced to watch poor hitters flail at balls, but two legitimate Major Leaguers have bats taken out of their hands. Whoever would have been the DH is on the bench, and the 8th hitter often does not get to swing because teams are "pitching around him." While this is sound strategy, it is not enjoyable for the baseball fan.

The sacrifice bunt: - Instead of watching an inept hitter flail at the ball, we attempt to watch him tap the ball so that he can move a runner up one base. As any legitimate sabermetrician will tell you, the sacrifice bunt is extremely overrated and is a big-inning killer. Again, no fan wants to watch a pitcher laying down bunts.

The double switch: - This strategy leads to a manager pulling a starter and sometimes star player out of the game, so that a bench warmer can enter the game and hit for the pitcher. Isn't the fan paying to watch Manny Ramirez and not Eric Hinske or Alex Cora?

3. The World Series is less legitimate:

If the Red Sox make the World Series this year, they will have to play 3-4 games without either Mike Lowell, Kevin Youkilis or David Ortiz. If the Indians make it, they will be forced to sit down Travis Hafner or Ryan Garko. The Tigers would have a big time dilemma in that they would have to choose between Gary Sheffield and Magglio Ordonez.

And teams like the Tigers, Red Sox and Indians built their teams through having legitimate DHs. Ortiz, Hafner and Sheffield are huge bats in those line-ups.

And let's not forget, that the National League teams are hampered as well when they are in American League ballparks. A team like the Mets does not have a big bopper coming off the bench, because they are built to play National League baseball. If the Mets were an AL team, they would likely have one more big bat in the line-up.

The World Series as it is played would be as if the NFL and CFL top teams were to meet in the SuperBowl.

If an NFL team plays all year with 11 men, 100 yard fields and 10 yard end zones, how would they react to a 12th player, 110 yard fields and 20 yard endzones? The game would be a farce.

It is time that all of Major League Baseball adopts the Designated Hitter. 

I have heard people argue that we should do away with the DH in the AL, and that makes no sense to me.

People pay to watch Big Papi and Pronk knock the cover off the ball.

No one pays money to watch pitchers hit.