Dan Driessen was the first designated hitter in the World Series. Or maybe I should say Lou Piniella was?
You mean before he was such a funny manager, Lou was a DH? Yes!
The DH, adopted by the American League in 1973, was not used in the World Series until 1976.
The 1976 World Series pitted The Cincinatti Reds vs. The New York Yankees in a rematch from 1961. The Reds, this time, were the defending World Series champions. The Yankees were the underdogs, having not appeared in the World Series in 12 years.
So anyways, Piniella of the visiting Yankees and Driessen of the home town Reds, were the DH's in game 1 of the 1976 World Series. Driessen sort of came to bat first.
The Yankees went 1-2-3 in the top of the 1st. Piniella batted in the 4th spot, so he was on-deck when Thurman Munson went down on strikes against Don Gullett.
Joe Morgan hit a 2-out solo home run in the bottom of the frame, to put the Reds up, 1-0. Tony Perez then singled off Doyle Alexander. Now batting, the designated hitter, Dan Driessen. With a 1-0 count on Driessen, Perez took off on ball 2. He was thrown out by Munson.
So I guess, Piniella, who led off the second with a double, was the first official plate appearance of a DH in a World Series. Piniella ended up scoring on a sacrifice fly.
Driessen had no such luck in his first plate appearance, flying out to right centre. Driessen ended the day 0-4 and Pinella was 0-2 after the double. The Reds won the game, 5-1 and went on to a sweep.
Driessen, who ended up DH'ing the who Series, batted .333. The Yankees used Elliot Maddox in game 2 at DH and Carlos May in games 3 and 4.
The DH was used in all the even numbered World Series for a while: 1976, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1984
After no DH in 1985, there was a rule change for the 1986 World Series. The DH was only used in American League ballparks. The rule remains in effect to this day.
References
Snyder, John S. World Series!: Great Moments and Dubious Achievements. San Francisco: Chronicle, 1995. Print.
Sports Reference LLC. Baseball-Reference.com - Major League Statistics and Information. http://www.baseball-reference.com/. Web. 28 Oct. 2013.
You mean before he was such a funny manager, Lou was a DH? Yes!
The DH, adopted by the American League in 1973, was not used in the World Series until 1976.
The 1976 World Series pitted The Cincinatti Reds vs. The New York Yankees in a rematch from 1961. The Reds, this time, were the defending World Series champions. The Yankees were the underdogs, having not appeared in the World Series in 12 years.
So anyways, Piniella of the visiting Yankees and Driessen of the home town Reds, were the DH's in game 1 of the 1976 World Series. Driessen sort of came to bat first.
The Yankees went 1-2-3 in the top of the 1st. Piniella batted in the 4th spot, so he was on-deck when Thurman Munson went down on strikes against Don Gullett.
Joe Morgan hit a 2-out solo home run in the bottom of the frame, to put the Reds up, 1-0. Tony Perez then singled off Doyle Alexander. Now batting, the designated hitter, Dan Driessen. With a 1-0 count on Driessen, Perez took off on ball 2. He was thrown out by Munson.
So I guess, Piniella, who led off the second with a double, was the first official plate appearance of a DH in a World Series. Piniella ended up scoring on a sacrifice fly.
Driessen had no such luck in his first plate appearance, flying out to right centre. Driessen ended the day 0-4 and Pinella was 0-2 after the double. The Reds won the game, 5-1 and went on to a sweep.
Driessen, who ended up DH'ing the who Series, batted .333. The Yankees used Elliot Maddox in game 2 at DH and Carlos May in games 3 and 4.
The DH was used in all the even numbered World Series for a while: 1976, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1984
After no DH in 1985, there was a rule change for the 1986 World Series. The DH was only used in American League ballparks. The rule remains in effect to this day.
References
Snyder, John S. World Series!: Great Moments and Dubious Achievements. San Francisco: Chronicle, 1995. Print.
Sports Reference LLC. Baseball-Reference.com - Major League Statistics and Information. http://www.baseball-reference.com/. Web. 28 Oct. 2013.
No comments:
Post a Comment