WARNING!! Annual OT Baseball Thread 2011!! Open at Your Own Risk!

[26 Year Gap]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

I love it when pitchers in the National League do well, relatively speaking, at the plate. I also love it when they are occasionally asked to pinch hit, or pinch run, or are even asked to play a field position for a few innings. In my opinion, this is a lot more exciting than the American League with their pitching-only pitchers, and hitting-only designated hitters.

Hall of Famer Walter "Big Train" Johnson won over 400 games, had over 100 shutouts, and also hit 24 career home runs, had 255 career RBI's and had a career batting average of .235. Middle infielders today, with those hitting statistics, would be making millions of dollars a year. In 1968, Hall of Famer Bob Gibson, another good hitting pitcher, hit for almost as high an average (.170) as opposing batters hit off him (.184). Don Newcombe, and Don Drysdale, were also pretty good hitting pitchers.

And Sonny Siebert.