The structure of the game of baseball allows a certain degree of innovation, which typically occurs when some student of the game, thinking about ways to help his or her team win, recognizes possibilities inherent in the game of baseball of which no one else has heretofore thought. Consider the "double switch," a now common practice the origin of which is generally credited to Gene Mauch. The double switch has become widespread following the advent of the relief pitcher as a specialist in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It is typically employed late in a game when a manager wants to change pitchers, but the pitcher is due at bat in the next inning (we are talking here of pre-designated hitter baseball; which is to say, Baseball). Instead of simply replacing one pitcher for another, the manager makes a double switch: he brings in a new fielder with the new pitcher, puts the fielder in the pitcher's spot in the batting order, and puts the new pitcher in the batting spot of the replaced fielder. This makes it possible both to get a better hitter up to bat sooner and to keep the new pitcher in the game a little longer because the manager won't have to pinch hit for him in the next inning.
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