Excuse me while I vent.

A longtime baseball purist, I've had to hold my nose and painfully swallow changes to the game made over the years, such as interleague play, bats snapping like toothpicks and using an exhibition known as the All-Star Game to determine which league gets homefield in the World Series.

The art of bunting has dwindled to a select few players and postseason games end after midnight Eastern time. One league has 16 teams, the other 14.

None of these things are good for the game, in this man's opinion, and neither is the designated hitter.

When the American League decided to adopt the DH rule in 1973, thankfully, the National League never followed suit.

That became a problem, of course, come World Series time. It became a bigger problem since interleague play was incorporated into regular season play, wreaking havoc among big league baseball schedules everywhere.

It's time for the DH to go.

If you didn't believe that before now, the comments of New York Yankees co-chairman Hank Steinbrenner and veteran pitcher Mike Mussina should convince you.

Steinbrenner was honked off because his ace pitcher, Chien-Ming Wang, tore a tendon and sprained his right foot running the bases in a National League ballpark.

He said Wang had no business being out there.

Hmm ... running the bases. That's a baseball term, isn't it?That's something baseball players do, right?

Not according to Hank.

"Pitchers have enough to do without having to do that,"he said. "The National League needs to join the 21st century. ... That was a rule for the 1800s."

Really?

Seems to me that 35 years ago, most starting pitchers were throwing 250 innings-plus, completing their own games much of the time, and, gasp, hitting the ball and running the bases.

Bob Gibson hit over .300 a couple of times. Most pitchers learned how to be serviceable at the plate because it helped them win games.

Pitchers have enough to do today?Like what, exactly? Monitoring their own pitch counts?

Those same pitchers who threw more than 250 innings rarely came up with elbow, shoulder or arm injuries. Throw 200 innings now and you're considered a workhorse.

Advanced medical technoplogy gets injured pitchers back on the mound today — and there are still a lot more hurlers going down to ailments.

Pitching arms aren't developed anymore. It takes four or five pitchers to complete a nine-inning game today, not one or two.

Then there's Mussina's quote:"We run in straight lines most of the time. Turning corners, we just don't do that."

Here's a thought. Learn!

Get in the batting cage. Do some base-running drills. Become more than half a player.

Now hear this. Pitchers, grab a bat. DH's, grab a glove.

Go ahead, call me old. I'm yearning for the good ol' days and thankful that I lived them.