Bullington: Inter-league baseball and toilet-flushing cats

 By Bruce Bullington, greensborosports.com Staff Writer

Inter-league baseball is here once again. I’m told that the American public loves it. Apparently people can’t get enough of the Yankees against the Mets or the Cubs against the White Sox.

Or the Twins and the Brewers.

Or the Blue Jays and the Philles.

Seriously, isn’t it pretty obvious at this point that inter-league baseball is just a present for television? The differences between the American and National Leagues have been slowly drifting away since Bud Selig ascended to the commissioners office. No longer do the leagues have separate offices, league presidents or schedules.

The only real difference left is the designated hitter. Having grown up watching American League baseball, I don’t see the fascination of watching the pitcher hit. Sure, occasionally a pitcher hits a home run and everyone gets excited, but the other 90% of the time they are an automatic out. All levels of baseball use the DH now with the exception of the NL.

When I see a pitcher get a hit, it leaves me with the same feeling I get when I see a cat that can flush a toilet on “America’s Funniest Home Videos”. Sure, it’s interesting, but what’s the point? Pitchers aren’t paid to hit and no pitcher in this history of the game has been released for hitting .125.

Maybe I just don’t get it, but I’m looking forward to next week when baseball resumes playing within the respective leagues. That’s the way the game was played for 122 years and the game was just fine then.

Bruce Bullington runs the message boards at greensborohockey.com. He can be reached at bruce@greensborohockey.com.