Watching a pitcher bat was fantastic! Especially if the pitcher was a dick and had beaned an opponent- now there's no real payback possible. Batting the pitcher added the element of the loss art of bunting, which I doubt any hitters train for these days.
I for one am sick of seeing 2 leagues filled with Dave Kingmans (minus about 20 HR's a year). It's boring, all-or-nothing batting with little nuance and variation (unless you're Cleveland). How many palookas have the Yanks featured over the years? The Balbonis, Cliff Johnsons, Jack Clarks.....One of these guys whiffing in the 9th added some excitement, but now you trot out 7 palookas every night, guys who can only pull the ball, who only go the other way when they're late on a heater, who make contact and stand at the plate gazing because they're too lazy and unprofessional to haul ass down the line until the ball clears the fence. That's the Brewers line up: Willy Adames, 25-30 HRs to compliment his .206 average and he's the team's MVP 2 years running.
And then there's the lost strategy of pitcher management in the late innings...whether to pinch hit for a guy when the score was close and he was throwing well. The double switch.
