Talk:Pinch hitter

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Why "pinch"?

I think the article needs some explanation of why such a player is called a "pinch" hitter. I take it that it is because the substitute player is introduced at a critical juncture? The article seems to take it for granted that readers will understand that, but I had to look up the phrase to reach that conclusion, which may still be wrong. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.42.235.141 (talk) 20:57, 23 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Pinch Hit

Pinch Hit

This appears to be taken wholesale from [1] and is likely a copyright violation. Mytildebang 19:58, 2 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

lead and sections

This article needs either a good lead or a reordering with Cricket and Popular Culture preceding Baseball, because there is so much baseball. --P64 17:37, 2 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I think baseball should remain first, because it was a baseball term first and cricket borrowed it - just as in the batting average article, cricket comes first because baseball took the term from cricket. Really what we need is more text in the cricket section, but that might be tricky because it's often hard to decide whether such-and-such a batsman is a pinch-hitter. Maybe a short discussion of Jayasuriya's batting in the 1996 World Cup would be useful, since that's where a lot of cricket fans (eg me!) first came across the term used in this way. Loganberry (Talk) 13:25, 7 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, I've now written a quick paragraph about Jayasuriya, as well as making a couple of minor changes to the first para - for example, stressing that unlike in baseball, a cricket pinch hitter is not a substitute. Loganberry (Talk) 14:03, 7 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I realise this is nearly two decades old, but the cricket para seems to have been removed at some point. That is annoying, because the term is being used more and more for short-firm cricket (T20, The Hundred) and indeed the IPL now seems to have a substitution rule that is very similar to baseball. I’m not qualified to write it, but it would be good if the cricketing usage could be reintroduced. Matruman (talk) 15:01, 18 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Clean-up

This is a late addition to the talk page, but I did some clean-up ont his article, tabled the records section for better organization. --Lendorien 14:35, 21 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Rare cases for pinch hitters

I've not heard of this before, but it is possible that a pinch hitter can have 2 or more at bats, and never remains in the game as a position player in defense. Example is Ryan Spilborghs of the Colorado Rockies (see box score). Anyone know of others that fall in this situation? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Slxception (talk • contribs) 18:26, 26 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

There used to be a handful of players who were credited with "Most pinch hits, game" with 2. In these cases, the player delivered a pinch hit -- after which his team scored a lot and batted around -- and he was able to get a second at-bat and a second hit. One example that I recall was the game of May 4, 1962, wherein Russ Nixon of Boston did just this against Chicago during a 12-run fifth inning. He left the game after that, without going in on defense. (Link: http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1962/B05040BOS1962.htm ). In the box score in the Chicago papers, Nixon got the standard footnote, but with the rare text "a--Singled twice for Fornieles in 5th."

Some time, circa 1980, the scoring rules were changed. Nobody could be a pinch hitter twice in a game; the second time, he was batting for himself. However, he was a "positionless" player. Had Nixon homered in his second turn, it would not be counted under his "HR as a catcher," nor as a "Pinch-hit HR."

You may be able to find more names in a record book from the 1970s or earlier. Additionally, a few players have pinch run and later come to bat. By modern rules, their at-bat was "positionless." WHPratt (talk) 04:19, 31 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Another: Cliff Johnson of Houston in 1975: a pinch-double and a homer in the same inning!WHPratt (talk) 01:03, 1 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1975/B05310PHI1975.htm

History?

Was this always done in baseball? Was it ever controversial?--Jrm2007 (talk) 03:26, 21 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

So far as I can tell, pinch-hitting was accepted from the start.

There was one early player-manager -- Jesse "The Crab" Burkett -- who once sent himself up to bat, and was annoyed when the umpire asked him for whom was he hitting. "None of your business!" said he. The ump picked up the megaphone and announced (it was his job in those days) "Burkett, now batting for ..., er, for exercise."

Jesse, still ornery, struck out, so I'm told.

""WHPratt (talk) 06:28, 26 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]