[Kurn]

"Real" in what way? All sports evolve. The original rules of baseball required that the pitcher ask the batter where he preferred the pitch to be thrown. In fact, as late as the beginning of the 20th century, major league owners tried to ban the curveball and all other "attempts to deceive the batter." As originally designed, the pitchers job was to enable the batter to put the ball in play, not try to get him out.

So if you don't believe baseball should revert to that, the "baseball purist" argument goes out the window. You tacitly accept that an evolution of the rules makes sense. No pitcher makes an NL roster because of his bat. No manager ever says, "Smith will give me more innings than Jones and have a better ERA, but Jones is my 5th starter because we need his bat in the lineup every 5th day."

The pitcher is a defensive specialist. Logic says putting an offensive specialist in the batting order instead of the pitcher makes the game better.

Lou Piniella once said managing in the NL was easier because 2/3 of all pitching changes are automatic. 6th inning or beyond, tied or behind, you pinch hit. No skill there. No stress there. The hardest decision a manager has to make in a game is deciding when the starting pitcher has had enough. In the NL, that decision comes into play much less than in the AL.