"in the clutch (baseball)--query

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>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.

I don't think these citations necessarily support free variation between
singular and plural: are there examples of "he got his single hit in the
clutches" or equivalent? If not, "clutch" may mean "tight moment" and
"clutches" may mean "tight moments" as expected ... which is a little
different from such cases as "a moment in the clutch of Fate" = "a moment
in the clutches of Fate".

It does appear that "clutch" meant "pinch", all right. But it's still not
obvious to me why "clutch" appeared in this sense at all (I can see a few
different possibilities).

-- Doug Wilson