Query: 1910 "squeeze my bit"

[Landau, James]

I would guess that "don't try to squeeze my bit" means "don't try to be
cheap and pay me less than I'm worth"

I also suspect this is a nonce expression, invented by the
scansion-challenged poet to rhyme with "hit".

Did the term "squeeze" for a bunt exist in 1910?

         - Jim Landau

-----Original Message-----
From: Cohen, Gerald Leonard [mailto:gcohen at UMR.EDU]
Sent: Wednesday, February 22, 2006 9:53 PM
Subject: Query: 1910 "squeeze my bit"

 Would anyone have any idea what "squeeze my bit" means in the last of
the following lines? (They're excerpted from a baseball poem "Letters To
A Magnate--No. 1--From a Would-Be Recruit"; I omit the first two
verses):

"I'm a wiz at playing shortstop, in the outfield I can shine.
Pitch?  Well, say, bo; you should see me toss 'em over on a line.
        Once I fanned out twenty-seven
        In a row--the next eleven
Knocked out weak ones to the infield--not a chance to get a hit.
So just send me on the contract--but don't try to squeeze my bit."

Gerald Cohen
P.S. There are three more verses. Also, the poem was drawn to my
attention by Barry Popik.  It appears in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer,
April 10, 1910, p. 7, cols. 4-5.

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