Tom Boswell = Genius

From Boz's chat today:

Let the home team pick the rules before every game of the season: DH or no DH.

It would introduce an element of strategy into every game. Is our DH much better or much worse than theirs? Is our starting pitcher a much better or much worse hitter than theirs?

For years baseball has tried to find a way to reduce the prominence and value of DH's without kicking them out of the game __which the union would fight. The reasoning is that someone who only plays "half" of the game SHOULDN'T be worth as much. Under my idea, if you had a great DH, you could be sure he'd start 81 games at home and probably pinch-hit 70-to-80 times a year on the road at an absolute minimum. That's still 425 plate appearances. But it's not 625.

It might de-emphasize the DH just enough to appeal to common sense while unifying the DH for both leagues and making baseball One Game again. (Or, if letting the home team have the choice three hours before every game seems like too much of an advantage, then alternate the choice between the teams from game to game. Or let the visiting team choose if that's more appealing.)

I don't care if it's farfetched.  I agree totally with this idea.

Let me remind you, too, that there's a precedent for giving the home team a game-defining choice.  Until 1950 in the Major Leagues, the home team was allowed decide whether it wanted to bat first or last.