​Wednesday, January 11 — This date in 1973 was a day that lives in infamy, at least among some self-described baseball purists. The American League approved a three-year experiment with replacing pitchers in the batting order with a designated hitter. The rule change stuck and is the most visible distinction between the two major leagues. The first DH to come to the plate was the New York Yankees’ Ron Blomberg on April 6, 1973. The anti-climatic result was a walk. But as the bases were loaded, he drove in a run. Still, the Boston Red Sox prevailed 15 to 5. There are 15 major league designated hitter jobs in the U.S., a tiny, one-in-10-million specialty, among the nearly 159 million people 16 and older in the labor force.
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