So I made a lot of changes this past season, if you haven’t heard; a different team, moving across the country, trading New York snow for Los Angeles sun… but another thing is switching from the American League to the National League.  Now, I’ve heard a million opinions about the differences between the two: the AL’s smaller and home-run-friendly ballparks, the dimensions of the strike zones and varying styles of the umpires, the AL’s tendency toward power-hitting versus the NL’s focus on pitching and running the bases.  But of course, the biggest and most obvious different is the AL’s Designated Hitters for its pitchers.

The way I explained the whole DH thing to Californians is that in the American League, the pitcher gets sort of a stunt double.  Which is funny, since here I am in the land of stunt doubles, and my NL pitchers will have to fend for themselves at the plate.  It’s taking a bit of getting used to again, but I don’t mind.  Baseball is baseball.  Maybe I’ll just get a stunt double to use at press conferences.

See more of Joe’s L.A. adventures at www.torrestories.com