What is the history/reasoning behind the defensive indifference rule in MLB?

Question

I'm struggling to find a good answer as to why a player would not be credited with a stolen base under the official MLB rules. It seems to me that most indifference calls are made when the defending team is far ahead and is wanting to avoid errors more than record outs on attempted stolen bases. This seems like a pretty weak argument, so I'm looking to see if there are others.

Here is rule 10.07 talking about DI (and linked to above):

Rule 10.07(g) Comment: The scorer shall consider, in judging whether the defensive team has been indifferent to a runners advance, the totality of the circumstances, including the inning and score of the game, whether the defensive team had held the runner on base, whether the pitcher had made any pickoff attempts on that runner before the runners advance, whether the fielder ordinarily expected to cover the base to which the runner advanced made a move to cover such base, whether the defensive team had a legitimate strategic motive to not contest the runners advance or whether the defensive team might be trying impermissibly to deny the runner credit for a stolen base. For example, with runners on first and third bases, the official scorer should ordinarily credit a stolen base when the runner on first advances to second, if, in the scorers judgment, the defensive team had a legitimate strategic motivenamely, preventing the runner on third base from scoring on the throw to second basenot to contest the runners advance to second base. The official scorer may conclude that the defensive team is impermissibly trying to deny a runner credit for a stolen base if, for example, the defensive team fails to defend the advance of a runner approaching a league or career record or a league statistical title.

Answer 1

According to this 2009 NY Times article about defensive indifference:

Defensive indifference is exactly what it connotes: a situation when a team was unconcerned about preventing the runner from advancing. After official scorers consider the score and the inning, if the pitcher made pickoff attempts and if the first baseman was positioned behind the runner, they determine if the dash was a steal or defensive indifference.

“It’s an old rule and a very good rule,” said Bill Shannon, who has been a scorer for 31 seasons. “I’m loath to give away statistical achievements.”

But what about the runner who has successfully scooted the 90 feet? Some players contend they should be credited with a stolen base. If the team’s defensive strategy was to give away the base, should the runner be rewarded for taking what was available?

and also

Defensive indifference is a sleepy but established rule that has been in Major League Baseball for 89 years. Bob Waterman, a senior baseball staffer at Elias, said the addendum, “No stolen base shall be credited to a runner who is allowed to advance without an effort being made to stop him,” was placed in the 1920 rule book. The rule is typically enforced in the ninth inning of a lopsided game when the defense yawns as a runner grabs a meaningless base.

The article also notes:

Steve Hirdt, the executive vice president of Elias, noticed references to defensive indifference while researching play-by-play accounts of games from the 1920s. In an article about the imminent rule change in The Chicago Tribune on Jan. 30, 1920, there is a headline that reads, “Cut Out the Joke Steals.” Hirdt called it a good rule because it protects “the spirit of what a stolen base is.”

It seems that baseball's rule makers had a very strict definition of what a stolen base was - they did not want meaningless stat padding. This rule helps to make an "earned" steal more valuable and keeps a lopsided game moving by discouraging teams from tacking on "steals" that won't impact the outcome of the game.

Answer 2

I would assume this is also so no stat padding is done on the behalf of a player looking to add additional steal totals to his statistics. I can see plenty of times when a game is out of reach and a player reaching first and taking 2nd for no reason just to add steals to his total. At the end of the season instead of the true 10 bases stolen +10 DI's it would appear the player stole 20 bases when his number should only be half of that.

it would be cool if there was a formula to compile an OPS. for a player for when it only counted towards the game and not garbage time. If a player hits 15 garbage time home runs to add on to his season total what good was his 35 home runs really other than proving he can dominate lesser late game pitching.