Demographics of designated hitter support

Courtesy of the blog at improbable.com (i.e., the online presence of Annals of Improbable Research), here is a new report on the demographics of people who support the designated hitter in baseball. The article, which appeared recently in Journal of Political Science (one of the top political science journals), has the following abstract:

Since its introduction in 1973, major league baseball’s designated hitter (DH) rule has been the subject of continuing controversy. Here, we investigate the political and socio-demographic determinants of public opinion toward the DH rule, using data from a nationwide poll conducted during September 1997. Our findings suggest that it is in fact Democrats, not Republicans, who tend to favor the DH. In addition, we find no effect for respondents’ proximity to American or National League teams, though older respondents were consistently more likely to oppose the rule.


This article cites an older one, which I am gathering based on the phrasing in the abstract had the opposite conclusion concerning Democrats and Republicans.

For what it's worth, I'm ok with the DH in one league and not in the other. I'm also registered as an Independent ("no party affiliation", to be technically correct).