[Ads-l] Antedating of "On-Base Percentage"

[Shapiro, Fred]

on-base percentage (OED 1949)

“If you substitute the total times a player walks up to the plate and stands there with his bat in his hands for the ‘official at-bats’ and divide it into hits, bases-on-balls, hit-by-pitcher (or the total times a player reaches base) you have an ‘on-base’ percentage that is much more revealing of a player’s value than his ‘batting average’ and ‘slugging percentage’.” Jimmy Powers, “The PowerHouse,<https://www.newspapers.com/image/432526437>” New York Daily News, June 3, 1941, p45

NOTE: This antedating was found by Ken Liss.

Fred Shapiro

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