The St. Louis Cardinals of the ’80s didn’t need a DH. Neither does the National League

As the clouds of the designated hitter gather over the National League, the MLB channel couldn’t have picked a better time to present a show featuring the Whiteyball St. Louis Cardinals clubs of the 1980s.

There is so much missing from baseball these days: The true stolen base artists, the hit and run, and players who — gasp — could hit the ball to all fields. People from outside of St. Louis seem to view the homer-less Cardinals of 35 years ago to be something of a baseball anomaly. Somehow, we’re supposed to believe that a club that finished last in the Senior Circuit in home runs while winning the pennant three times just go “lucky.” But the 1980s St. Louis Cardinals are Exhibit A in the argument that baseball is a thinking person’s game and that brains can be brawn any day of the week.

I only wish there was a way to field the 1980s Cardinals against the best in the game today. Instead of trying to strike out everyone they faced, John Tudor, Danny Cox and Joaquin Andujar would tie opposing hitters in knots by changing locations as often as they change speeds. Bruce Sutter, the best closer in baseball history — forgive me Mariano Rivera — didn’t need any set-up man. While Rivera was money in the bank in the ninth inning, Sutter would pitch the eighth AND the ninth innings. And if he needed, he’d pitch the seventh inning, too.

Although I would keep Jack Clark’s bat on the roster to face tough lefty pitchers, I think I’d go with a starting infield of Keith Hernandez at first, Tommy Herr at second, the incomparable Ozzie Smith at short and Terry Pendleton at third base. My four outfielders would be Willie McGee, Andy Van Slyke, Vince Coleman and Lonnie Smith.

Nobody today plays defense like those Cardinals clubs did. The bigger players of today typically have less range. What they give up in power, the vintage Cardinals compensate for with unrelenting speed. And that’s really the difference between the game now and the way baseball was played for most of history — from the dead ball era until the 1940s and the 1960s into the 90s. Players didn’t wait around for someone to hit a home run. They took big leads and dared the pitcher to try to pick them off. The only benefit wasn’t when the runner stole the base, he divided the pitcher’s attention from the hitter and forced the defense to make mistakes and take gambles.

I wish the powers that be in the big leagues would take a good hard look at the way baseball used to be played — and as it should be played again. Here we sit trying to figure out how to bring fans back to the ballpark, dreaming up excuses like that games are too long for people to stay interested. Well, people have been plenty interested in baseball for 150 years before the current leaders of the game got to be too smart for their own good. Did they ever stop to think that they’re taking all the natural drama and excitement out of the game with their tweaks to the rules including the DH and limiting how bullpen pitchers can be deployed? Dumbing it down makes the game mildly more interesting to people who have never seen it before. But it makes it vastly less appealing to dyed in the wool fans who consistently buy tickets and follow the games religiously on television and radio.

DH takes strategy out of baseball

By watering down the game with the designated hitter in the NL, they’re changing the way baseball is played forever. The DH has spread like a plague in the game, into the minors, the college ranks and even high school baseball. Once the pitchers stop hitting, it’s going to be a huge change if they ever wanted to go back. And even if they could overcome the barrier of the fact that pitchers wouldn’t have any experience in the batter’s box, MLB will never be able to put the genie back in the bottle because the players association wouldn’t want to give up the jobs for over the hill or defensively challenged players.

In the MLB feature about the Cardinals, Ken Oberkfell noted that the Atlanta Braves were tied with St. Louis in Game 2 of the 1982 National League Championship Series when he came to the plate with the go-ahead runner on second and two out with Sutter in the on-deck circle. It’s an agonizing decision for the manager to have to decide whether to pitch to the batter or contemplate what will happen if he puts the hitter on base. Would Whitey pinch hit or leave Sutter in? Who would the prospective pinch hitter be and how does he match up with the pitcher in the game. In the American League game, it’s just a conga line of power hitters. There is no decision to be made. One hitter is no different than the next and there’s no other shoe to drop because the pitcher doesn’t have to come out of the game.

Please, MLB, don’t make the horrible mistake of letting the designated hitter, the cancer of baseball, spread to the National League.

Scott Wuerz

Belleville News-Democrat

Scott Wuerz has written “Cheap Seats,” a St. Louis Cardinals fan blog for the Belleville News-Democrat, since 2007. He is a former BND reporter who covered breaking news and education.