The AL changed the game with a historic designation
That never happened. But one of Finley’s other pet projects – the designated hitter – is still around today and has forever altered the baseball landscape.
The AL has been the stronger of the two leagues in almost every offensive category in virtually every year since adopting the DH, but only once did the National League come close to adopting it as well – and seldom was it on the agenda again during the period when AL and NL owners met separately.
It happened at an owners meeting in 1977, according to Giles, the Phillies executive, and it would have probably been approved, he said, if there had been cell phones then.
Giles said he was instructed by Ruly Carpenter, the Phillies owner then, to vote in favor it because "we had a major league player in Greg Luzinski who would have been perfect in that role and a minor league player in Keith Moreland who was also a terrific young hitter but limited defensively."
The NL had 12 teams and needed seven votes to adopt it.
"Our big rivalry at the time was with the (Pittsburgh) Pirates," Giles said, "and Harding Peterson, their general manager, was under instructions from his owner, John Galbreath, to vote the same way we did. However, at the meeting, it was decided that we wouldn't go to the DH until a year later (1979), and since we were going to wait a year I felt that I should talk to Ruly before voting.
“Unfortunately, he was on a fishing trip and I had no way to reach him, and so my only choice was to abstain, and so did Harding. There were six teams in favor, four against, and our two abstentions. If we had been going to adopt the DH immediately without that year's wait it would have been approved, and it never came up for a vote again.
"We came close, but no regrets. The debate over the DH is healthy for the game."
Ross Newhan won 2000 J.G. Taylor Spink Award for meritorious contributions to baseball writing
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