If there was anything people in 1954 would be certain about what life would be like 70 years later, it’s the fact that there are nine starting players in a Major League Baseball game.

And they’d be wrong.

After the bewilderment, it would be your opportunity to explain the designated hitter, or DH.

It was instituted in 1973 by the American League to increase the amount of offense in a game. AL attendance – that includes my parents’ beloved New York Yankees – lagged the National League, which seemed to play a more exciting game of baseball. The National League had Willie Mays, Henry Aaron, Billy Williams and a lot of other sluggers, as well as aggressive players such as Pete Rose and Joe Morgan.

The DH was the American League’s answer to that. It took almost a half-century for the National League to follow suit, boosted toward action by the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020.

Diehard baseball fans, like my parents, had issues with the DH. It seemed like it reduced the pitcher to being a one-way player. And it simplified some of baseball’s strategy – do I pinch hit for a pitching who’s got a good game going but is down a run?

Then, in 2008, Yankee pitcher Chien-Ming Wang, off to a fantastic start in his career, needed to run the bases in a game at Houston, which was then part of the National League. At that time, games in NL parks were played without the DH, a disadvantage to AL teams.

Wang tore up his right foot and needed extensive rehabilitation. It derailed his career and hurt the Yankees’ chances in that season.

As my brother says, my mother was more of a Yankee fan than a baseball fan. When Wang got hurt, the DH became a necessity. We argued about it for the final 11 years of her life.

The DH is one of two rule changes that fundamentally changed major sports.

The other came in basketball.

When there were efforts made to challenge the dominance of the National Basketball Association, upstart leagues introduced a 3-point field goal. It was attained by sinking a basket from a long distance.

The idea was to increase scoring and allow smaller players to have as much impact on the game as the big centers were having in the NBA.

The American Basketball Association, which started play in 1967, introduced three-point baskets (and a red, white and blue basketball). Two years after four ABA teams were absorbed into the NBA, the expanded league introduced the 3-point line. A few years later, it made its way into college basketball.

That rule has made comebacks more feasible in games. And it has produced prolific long-range shooters such as Stephen Curry and Caitlin Clark.

Are games with 3-point baskets and DHs more fun to watch? I don’t know what folks in 1954 would have thought.