Sport: Designated Success

Score one for the American League and its “designated hitter” experiment (TIME, Jan. 22). In the first game of the 1973 exhibition season last week, which matched the American League’s Minnesota Twins and the National’s Pittsburgh Pirates, each team played according to the rules of its own league. Thus the Twins had the advantage of putting a hitter in the pitcher’s batting-order spot without removing the pitcher from the game. The Twins’ designee, Outfielder Larry Hisle, drove home seven runs with a pair of homers as Minnesota won 12-4.

“It’s a wonderful rule,” said Hisle, whose career batting average is a modest .236. Pirates’ Manager Bill Virdon, who will not have to contend with the innovation once the regular season begins, had a different view: “It’s not fair, playing nine men against ten.”