"Hit in the clutch" (1927)

[bapopik at AOL.COM]

Yeah, there are hundreds of hits for "clutch." I took a quick look before Zimmer's first "earliest cite."
...
The Paper of Record search engine is terrible. You can ask for "in the clutch," and it'll tell you that "in" is common and will be ignored. It's very time-consuming. Plus, some of the computers here at NYU can't open the paperofrecord Acrobat and I have to go to the Apple Macs.
...
I'm not so sure some of the "clutch" and "clutches" cited in Baseball Magazine don't apply.
...

-----Original Message-----
From: Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU>
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Sent: Mon, 23 May 2005 00:13:00 -0400
Subject: Re: "Hit in the clutch" (1927)


On Sun, 22 May 2005 22:05:44 -0400, Benjamin Zimmer
<bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU> wrote:

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

Make that 1922! (Still getting the hang of searching on Paper of Record.)

-----
1922 _Sporting News_ 13 Apr. 5/5 McNally had been showing plenty in the
field and his bat is one of the most timely on the squad and he'd rather
miss his Sunday breakfast than lose the chance to hit in the clutch.
-----



--Ben Zimmer