"in the clutch (baseball)--query

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Sat, 21 May 2005 14:10:31 -0400, Douglas G. Wilson <douglas at NB.NET> wrote:
>
>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".

The earliest cite I've found so far is an attributive usage from 1929:

-----
1929 _Frederick Post_ (Md.) 26 Mar. 3/6 Marty is one of the best "clutch"
batters in the league. His average is never very high but he always comes
through with his hits when they are most needed.
[by Dan Thomas, NEA Service Writer, also published in:
Ironwood Daily Globe (Mich.), Mar. 29, 1929, p. 18/1]
-----

As far as "in the clutch", HDAS has the 1929 cite below (from an article
called "Baseball Has Slang Of Its Own"), and I assume Doug Wilson is
referring to the 1930 cite:

-----
1929 _N.Y. Times_ 2 Jun. XX2/8 When a batter produces a safe "blow" at an
opportune moment, his fellow-players say that he has hit "in the saddle"
or "in the clutch."
-----
1930 _Decatur Daily Review_ (Ill.) 15 Jun. 11/2 Art Scharein displayed the
kind of a ball player he is when he came through in the clutch in the
eighth inning by socking a single to right field for the blow that
produced the winning run.
-----

But one can also find "in the clutches" with the same meaning as early as
1930:

-----
1930 _Port Arthur News_ (Tex.) 30 Jun. 8/2 The Indians, who the previous
day had set a record by leaving 20 men stranded on the bases, rapped Slim
Harris for 13 hits, compared to nine for the Cubs off Hargrove and Darrow,
but the Cubs got theirs in the clutches.
-----
1930 _Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune_ (Wisc.) 22 Jul. 6/8 Then Henry
Pippen of the Philadelphia Athletics did some nice pitching in the
clutches and Dario Lodigiani knocked in three runs to help beat the
Detroit Tigers, 6-2.
-----

Through the mid-'30s one can find both "in the clutch" and "in the
clutches" varying freely in baseball reporting.  This supports the idea
that the expression was modeled on the earlier "in the pinch/pinches",
which also varied freely between singular and plural.


--Ben Zimmer