Antedating of "Reliever" & Definition Correction

[Laurence Horn]

At 12:47 AM -0600 1/15/06, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC wrote:
>From: "Fred Shapiro" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
>Sent: Saturday, January 14, 2006 9:25 PM
>
>>  [NOTE: The definition in OED, "A pitcher who relieves the opening
>>  pitcher," is incorrect, since the reliever frequently relieves another
>>  reliever.]
>>
>>  Fred Shapiro
>
>If a reliever is a member of the class all pitchers (which includes,
>also, "opening pitchers"), then the OED definition would be correct.

I don't follow this.  If "opening" is deleted from the OED entry, the
definition works.  If not, it doesn't, for the reason Fred gave.
Anymore, the reliever usually does *not* replace the opening pitcher,
which incidentally is also a rather quaint or odd way to refer to the
starter/starting pitcher.

larry