Former White Sox owner Bill Veeck made his players wear shorts for three games in 1976. He also had them don pajama-style jerseys with wide lapels, something Hugh Hefner might have worn to a Playboy Mansion tickle fight. The Sox dressed like a bad softball team, but, on the way to a 64-97 record, didn’t play nearly as well as one.
It was a stunt, a gimmick and an aesthetic crime. Sort of like the designated hitter rule.
Every time a DH comes to the plate in the American League, a small outpost in my brain sends out the same message: You are, at this moment, watching a sacrilege that would be on par with Vin Diesel playing Macbeth.