Designated Targets

__"Batter Up! Moral Hazard and the Effects of the Designated Hitter Rule on Hit Batsmen" by Brian L. Goff, William F. Shughart II, and Robert D. Tollison, in Economic Inquiry (July 1997), Western Economic Assn., International Executive Office, 7400 Center Ave., Ste. 109, Huntington Beach, Calif. 92647–3039.__

A quarter-century ago, the American League introduced its still-controversial designated hitter (DH) rule, letting substitutes stand in for pitchers at the plate. Careful research now reveals that this has had an unintended and unwelcome consequence for batters: they get struck by pitched balls more often.

Before 1973, a major league hurler who deliberately threw at a hitter had to worry that he might get the same treatment when he took his own turn at the plate, observe economists Goff, Shughart, and Rollison, of Western Kentucky University, the University of Mississippi, and George Mason University, respectively.

Even so, in the late 1960s and early ‘70s, some 300 to 400 batters in each league got hit each year. Then the American League—but not the National League—adopted the DH rule.

In a typical season since, the economists find (after controlling for differences in atbats between the two leagues), 44 to 50 more American League batters have had close encounters with speeding baseballs. In other words, with American League pitchers able to throw at hitters with greater impunity, batters have suffered 10 to 15 percent more direct hits than their National League counterparts. Armed with this scholarly finding, perhaps ballplayers now should negotiate a premium for playing in the American League.