I like tradition. I like that the man who invented basketball coached at my favorite school, even if he was probably the worst coach in the school’s history. I like Notre Dame because of what they used to be, though it has little to do with what they are today.

I like the old ways. I like reading stories out of books, while acknowledging a tablet would be more convenient. I like meeting friends over coffee to talk in person, even if I already text them regularly.

I also like sports. I like when my teams are good because I like when they win. When I watch professional sports I want to watch two teams play each other at their best, with all their stars healthy and their artillery available.

When I watch sports, especially at the professional level, I want them to play at their highest level. Seeing pitchers who rarely practice hitting, run the bases in windbreakers, and refuse to run hard or slide into bases is not the sport at its highest level.

If the teams and their coaches took pitchers hitting seriously I would be happy with it, I’d probably want it in the American League as well as the National League, but they don’t.

However, I give up trying to convince defenders of these offensive hackers. National League pitchers are going to continue to embarrass themselves as long as their fans want it, and I submit to their stubbornness. At least that’s what I’d tell them if I made the rules.

And then submit a work-around.

Make the Designated Hitter optional in the National League. If the home team is from the NL they will have the option of both teams either having or not having the designated hitter.

The strategy traditionalists esteem is still present but on a larger scale, because the home NL team would have to factor their prospective designated hitter with that of their opponents.

The big market teams in the National League would spend money on a “most-time” DH that could be used at home and during interleague play. If the Dodgers employed a Victor Martinez-quality player at DH, it would force medium-market NL teams to keep pace by having a decent 9th batter as well. This would continue to trickle-down to the bottom market teams in the same way. In a matter of only a few years every NL team would have made attempts to acquire a “most-time” designated hitter, who they would choose to deploy in their home ballparks depending on the strategy of the situation.

The NL team will make this decision for the duration of the series – so if the San Francisco Giants have a 3 game home series against the Boston Red Sox they must decide when submitting their lineup card for the first game if the DH will be used in that series.

Once more teams have a 9th hitter worthy of playing every day but weak in the field, MLB would introduce the idea of a full-time DH for both leagues. The use of a some-time DH would make the transition to full-time designated hitters in both leagues more palatable to the NL and its fans.

And I would no longer have to watch pitchers in windbreakers embarrassing themselves on the base paths.