Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2016 April 29
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April 29[edit]
Non-pitchers pitching[edit]
In baseball, is there a term for a situation in which the person on the pitcher's mound isn't really a pitcher? Relief pitcher#Position players as relievers doesn't use any such terms (the section header is the shortest circumlocution), but I suppose there could be such a term, which just isn't appearing in the article currently. Nyttend (talk) 19:48, 29 April 2016 (UTC)
- AFAIK, there is no special term for it except "giving up." It generally only happens when a game is out of reach, and you're trying to rest the bullpen for an upcoming game you have a better shot of winning. But there is no special term for it. --Jayron32 20:02, 29 April 2016 (UTC)
- Sometimes it's done as a stunt, like when they decide to have one guy play a new position each inning. And sometimes a pitcher will be stashed at a position, to preserve him for later in the game. In general, though, it's desperation, i.e. they've exhausted their bullpen and have to put somebody out there or they'll forfeit. When Larry Biittner was brought in for an inning or two, the TV announcer said that certain position players are designated as available for pitching duty if necessary. The purpose of such a list would be to keep a team from putting just any old body out there and making a (further) farce of the game. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 20:49, 29 April 2016 (UTC)
- So is there a term for the situation you mentioned when a pitcher is stashed somewhere else, but a real pitcher is pitching? (I remember seeing Fernando Valenzuela out in right field once... mind you, he wasn't such a bad hitter.) Hayttom (talk) 06:21, 30 April 2016 (UTC)
- One term used is "mystery pitcher"; I've also heard "joke pitcher" or "non-pitcher". There are basically three situations when this happens: a team is getting blown out and doesn't want to tire its bullpen in a lost cause ; a player has always wanted to pitch and is given a chance in a meaningless game (this happened with Ichiro Suzuki pitched in the last game of last season; playing all nine positions also qualifies in this category); or a manager has run out of pitchers in an extra-inning game and uses a non-pitcher in desperation. The latter move sometimes work, as a few position players have been credited with wins in such situations. I'll disagree with Bugs on one point, however: it's not true that players have to be designated beforehand to be eligible to pitch; it's more a case of the manager pointing to someone on his bench, and saying "you, go pitch!" If the player has pitched in college or high school, so much the better, but some players will say afterwards that they hadn't pitched since Little League before being thrown to the wolves. Regarding pitchers playing the field, see this article [1] for more analysis. --Xuxl (talk) 11:06, 30 April 2016 (UTC)
- It's what a TV announcer said in 1977. I haven't found anything about it via Google. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 17:34, 30 April 2016 (UTC)
- One term used is "mystery pitcher"; I've also heard "joke pitcher" or "non-pitcher". There are basically three situations when this happens: a team is getting blown out and doesn't want to tire its bullpen in a lost cause ; a player has always wanted to pitch and is given a chance in a meaningless game (this happened with Ichiro Suzuki pitched in the last game of last season; playing all nine positions also qualifies in this category); or a manager has run out of pitchers in an extra-inning game and uses a non-pitcher in desperation. The latter move sometimes work, as a few position players have been credited with wins in such situations. I'll disagree with Bugs on one point, however: it's not true that players have to be designated beforehand to be eligible to pitch; it's more a case of the manager pointing to someone on his bench, and saying "you, go pitch!" If the player has pitched in college or high school, so much the better, but some players will say afterwards that they hadn't pitched since Little League before being thrown to the wolves. Regarding pitchers playing the field, see this article [1] for more analysis. --Xuxl (talk) 11:06, 30 April 2016 (UTC)