Baseballing

IF YOU ARE NOT  a baseball fan, become one. If you are, we submit for your inspection, as rod Serling said, the following proposed rules changes. That the designated hitter be absent from the game for the first six innings, but allowed thereafter. Tha the tenth inning be played under normal rules, the eleventh be played with a runner on first base at the beginning, the twelfth with a runner on second, and the thirteenth and every subsequent inning with a runner on third to start the inning. Any pitcher must pitch to at least three batters, unless injured. the benefit would be that the DH issue would be resolved in favor of both sides, and teh addition of the DH late in the game would enhance scoring chances when scoring is most valuable and difficult. People by nature are reluctant to change anything they value. People are by nature conservative. Progressive policies are based on reasoning, predicated upon societal, circumstantial necessity. In a more perfect world, conservatism would suffice, and traditional would guide everything. Since teh world is seriously flawed, progressive change is called for, until it is made more perfect. For too long the designated hitter controversy, like so many of the world's fundamental problems, has plagued baseball. Conservatism impedes progress. Hitters and pitchers linger and loiter between pitches, lulling spectators into complacency, Endless extra innings drain energy and tax patience. The solution is progressive improvements, not staid conservative tradition. Now that major league baseball is returning to America, let us rejoice in both our wonderful traditions, and our capacity for change and progress.