AP Poll Finds More Americans

The Associated Press-Knowledge Networks poll results are in on the never ending DH debate and here's what they found. After interviewing 803 adults who said they were interested in baseball, 38 percent want no DH in the Series and 34 percent favor full-time use. Only 28 percent liked the current way — a DH in AL stadiums but not in NL parks. Now if only MLB and the player's would listen to the fans. By the way, a little trivia - who was the first World Series DH back in 1976? If you need a hint, he played for the Cincinnati Reds. If you need another hint, he was a first baseman. And if you need one more hint, his initials are D D. If you haven't come up with the answer yet, the last hint is his first name is Dan and his last name starts with D. That's it. No more hints. For those of you who came up with Dan Driessen, congratulations on a job well done.

When I checked Dan Driessen's page at baseball-reference.com - the page sponsor wrote this about Dan: "Has never gotten the recognition he deserves. Ranks #8 all-time in fielding percentage for first basemen with 1296 or more games (eight full seasons). Dan was better defensively at first base than ALL first basemen currently in the Hall Of Fame!"

It's ironic that an excellent defensive player was the first DH in World Series competition. So often you hear the reason to use the DH is it allows an aging star who's not that great defensively anymore a chance to hit. That wasn't the case with Dan Driessen.