Okay, so today I decided to finally figure out what the heck the difference is between the National League and the American League in baseball. I mean, I watch games, I cheer for my team, but I never really got the whole NL vs. AL thing. It was always just…there.
So, I started by just plain old thinking about it. What did I already “know,” or at least, what did I think I knew? I knew there were two leagues, and I knew some teams were in one and some were in the other. I also vaguely remembered something about different rules, but I couldn’t have told you what they were.
Next, I figured I needed some actual information. So off to the internet. I just searched “national league vs american league” and started reading. The first few things that popped up mostly just list the basic history.
Digging a Little Deeper
After getting the general layout, the main thing I kept seeing over and over was this thing about the “designated hitter,” or DH. Apparently, that’s the big dividing line.
- American League: Uses the DH. This means a player who only bats, doesn’t play in the field, can bat for the pitcher.
- National League: Traditionally, the pitcher had to bat. No DH. Although it seems they changed this rule officially to use a DH as well in 2022.
I thought about that for a minute. It seems like a pretty big deal! It changes the strategy, like, a lot. In the AL, you can have a really strong hitter who maybe isn’t great at fielding, and they can still be a huge asset. But in the old NL(before 2022), the pitcher, who’s usually not the best hitter, is in the lineup.
I spent some time reading about why the leagues have these different rules. It’s all tied up in the history of baseball, of course. Apparently, the AL introduced the DH back in 1973 to try to boost offense and get more people interested in the games. The NL stuck with the “traditional” way of playing for a longer time.
I also realized that the World Series is where the NL and AL champions play each other. That makes more sense now! It’s like the ultimate showdown between these two different styles of baseball (at least, it was before the NL change to using the DH…).
So, yeah, that’s my little journey into understanding the NL vs. AL thing. I’m definitely no expert now, but I feel like I have a much better grasp on it. It’s not just some random label anymore; it actually means something about how the game is played. Or, used to be played, it seems. Might have to look into how that rule change is shaking things up.
