"in the clutch (baseball)--query

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>"In the fell clutch of circumstance,
>I have not winced or cried aloud."
>                                    --- W. E. Henley, "Invictus."
>
>Most '30s sportswriters should have been familiar with these lines from
>school.

JL's suggestion seems a likely possibility. A glance at the on-line papers
produces "came through in the clutch" in appropriate sense from 1930,
"clutch game" from 1935. "In the clutch of circumstance" (no "fell") was
used sometimes meaning "in conditions of hardship" or so, and this was
apparently the name of a movie in 1918. If the sports sense came directly
from this expression, I would hope to find at least occasional early
examples of a longer form in sports, e.g., "come through in the clutch of
circumstance".

-- Doug Wilson