[Ads-l] Antedating of "Pitcher" (Baseball)

[Shapiro, Fred]

pitcher (OED, n2, 3.b., 1870)

1848 By-laws and Rules of the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club 13

A runner cannot be put out in making one base, when a balk is made by the pitcher.

NOTE:  The OED's 1845 citation is not reliable, since there is no surviving printing of the 1845 rules.  I found the 1848 citation by examining the Yale University Library copy, one of only two known to exist.

Fred Shapiro



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