"Hit in the clutch" (1927)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Sun, 22 May 2005 21:29:43 -0400, Benjamin Zimmer
<bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU> wrote:

>On Sun, 22 May 2005 20:24:19 EDT, Bapopik at AOL.COM wrote:
>
>>29 December 1927, Sporting News, pg. 4, col. 7:
>>And then Casey rambled on with the info (illegible?--ed.) of another
>>pinch-swinger. "I knew that I might need some one to hit in the clutch
>>for me,  so I called this bird off the bench and told him to warm up,
>>as I would probably want him to hit."
>
>OK, how about this from 1926?
>
>-----
>1926 _Lincoln Star_ (Neb.) 15 Apr. 14/1 Lincoln's lone marker punctuated
>the third inning. Blenkiron poled a single to right and walks to Swanson
>and Zwilling filled the bases. "Strawberry" Bliss, up in the clutch,
>lined viciously to Patterson in deep center, Blenkiron sprinting to the
>plate after the catch.
>-----

Checking _Sporting News_ (just got access to Paper of Record), I can push
it back one more year...

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1925 _Sporting News_ 14 May 3/1 Twice thereafter he delivered in the
clutch and finally Speaker put him in right field, where he blazed for two
months last summer before illness put him out of the game.
-----


--Ben Zimmer