"Hit 'em where they ain't" (1901)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

The origins of one of the most famous quotes in baseball...

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http://eagle.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/Repository/BEG/1901/07/29/002-BEG-1901-07-29-01-SINGLE.PDF#OLV0_Entity_0369
_Brooklyn Eagle_, July 29, 1901, p. 11, col. 3
Willie Keeler is always prepared for anything that comes along. Yesterday
a Philadelphia fan approached him and inquired what was the principal
attribute of a successful batter.
"Well, you see," said Willie, "there are seven fielders in front of you,
all of them placed so that they are in a position to pounce upon all kinds
of drives, liners, or grounders. The principal thing to do is to hit 'em
where they ain't."
Which, in plain English, means that the successful batter hits the ball
where the fielders cannot reach it.
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http://eagle.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/Repository/BEG/1901/08/27/002-BEG-1901-08-27-01-SINGLE.PDF#OLV0_Entity_0388
_Brooklyn Eagle_, Aug. 27, 1901, p. 12, col. 3
The Eagle recently had an interesting story in its base ball columns
describing an interview its reporter had with that champion of scientific
batsmen, Willie Keeler, of the champion Brooklyn team, in which William
told of a letter he had received, among a lot of others, asking him if he
had written a treatise on batting, and if he had to let the applicant know
where to get a copy.
In reading the letter in question to the reporter, Willie said: "I have
already written a treatise, and it reads like this: 'Keep your eye clear,
and hit 'em where they ain't; that's all." [etc.]
[Letter to the Editor from Henry Chadwick, "Chadwick Elaborates on Willie
Keeler's Treatise on Batting."]
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Chadwick's elaboration about the "treatise" was repeated in a _Washington
Post_ article on Jan 29, 1905 (p. III5, col. 1, "Willie Keeler, The Ideal
Player").  The embellished version also appears on the Baseball Almanac
website (citing _Baseball's Greatest Quotations_ by Paul Dickson):

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/quotes/quokeel.shtml


--Ben Zimmer