BY PAUL DAUGHERTY
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Baseball owners convene today in Atlanta - slogan, Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here - intending to emerge with a united plan on realigning the leagues. It would be simpler to melt the ice caps with a gas grill than to get these fellows to agree on anything.

You could put them all in a room with one clock and they'd argue the hour. But here we go.

At some point during these momentous discussions, the owners will talk about the designated hitter. Should we have it, should we not, and if we shouldn't, how do we ditch it without the players union throwing a tantrum?

American League owners are said to be lukewarm on keeping the DH. National League owners don't want the DH, would fight the DH and might refuse to field teams if the DH were imposed upon them. NL fans aren't crazy about it, either.

There has always been a snobbery at work in the NL, fatted by the notion that pitchers hitting and managers thinking is the superior way to play the game.

Shhh! Genuises at work

Personally, I'd rather see a hitter hit than a manager think. Basically, it boils down to this:

Paul Molitor?

Or Jim Riggleman?

Reds broadcaster Marty Brennaman, who knows what he knows, doesn't like the DH. He was calling minor-league games at its inception in 1973. Initially, Brennaman was enthusiastic. But as the year progressed, he soured. "It wasn't the game I grew up watching," he said.

"I love to watch a game that's got speed. I love to watch managers manage. As a fan, I like the opportunity to second-guess a manager."

This is the meat of the NL argument. "The romanticism of the game," Reds interim CEO John Allen calls it. Allen was a season-ticket holder in Kansas City when Hal McRae was one of the best DHs in the league. Allen still prefers the NL.

The purists sit in the stands with sharpened pencils, radio to their ears, debating lefty-righty percentages and promoting the greatness of the double switch. To them, thinking is an essential part of the game.

But these are not thinking times. These are not days for quietly pondering defensive replacements and the merits of middle relief. These are days of exploding scoreboards and the 24-hour highlight. Living in the time of Prime is a risky business for baseball, which dispenses its pleasures more slowly.

Baseball may have been more civilized and classy when everybody's pitchers had to know how to bunt. But that was a long time ago. When, it could be argued, everything was more civilized.

Turn up the volume

Now, everything is louder.

It's no coincidence that two of the three sellouts in Pittsburgh this summer came on nights when the club shot off fireworks after the game. Or that seemingly every NBA game must open to an avalanche of spot lights, dry ice and disco to be considered valid.

Just guessing, but you'd have to think casual baseball fans prefer home runs to strategy. They'd rather watch action than not. Watching other sports has made them familiar with having their senses assaulted. Judging from the increasing popularity of football and basketball, as compared to the National Pastime, they rather like the feeling.

It has been suggested that baseball's owners, to appease the players union, would trade an additional roster spot per team for a gradual phase-out of the DH. This would allow aging DHs such as Molitor, Chili Davis and Edgar Martinez to finish their careers.

But maybe this is the wrong move. Maybe the DH should be phased in, to include the National League. It would keep some star players in the league longer. Dave Parker and Don Baylor were valuable in the AL long after they'd have retired from the NL.

It would take some players out of the defense who really don't belong there. It would increase scoring. It might hold the attention of the exploding scoreboard generation. Baseball is losing that one. More double switches won't get it back.

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Enquirer columnist Paul Daugherty welcomes your comments at 768-8454.