In baseball, a pull hitter is a batter who predominately hits the ball to the side of the field from which they bat. They are also known as a puller.
In baseball, a pull hitter is a batter who predominately hits the ball to the side of the field from which they bat. They are also known as a puller.
A right-handed hitter stands on the left side of home plate and "pulls" the ball by sending it to the left side of the diamond. If the ball goes to the right side from a right-handed hitter, it has gone to the "opposite field". Players who rarely hit to the opposite field or the middle are called dead pull hitters. In general, pullers are meeting the ball earlier at the plate. [1] : 674
Baseball lexicographer Paul Dickson recorded a usage of "pull hitter" in a 1925 column by Chilly Doyle in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette , "The Pirate catcher (Earl Smith) is one of the league's 'pull' hitters; that is, Earl, a lefthand batter of the slugging type, smashes most of his wallops to rightfield." [2] The term was common by 1928 when Babe Ruth used it in Babe Ruth's Own Book of Baseball. In a section on "Correcting Batting Faults", he wrote, "Most fellows who can't hit curve balls are chaps who stride out of line or 'pull away' from the ball. Most batters who have trouble with slow ball pitching are 'pull' hitters. That is, they are meeting the ball 'out front.'" [3] : 164
Ted Williams wrote, "the ideal hit is a pulled ball 380 feet because that's a home run in most parks in the big leagues". [4] Charley Lau explained, "the best pitch to pull is one thrown on the inner half of the plate", i.e. the side closest to the hitter. [5] Rod Carew pointed out that trying to pull the ball reduces the hitting area by at least half. [6]
The ability to hit the ball to anywhere on the field is an extremely valuable skill. Some of the sport's best hitters will pull inside pitches and hit outside pitches to the opposite field. [7] : 44 Opposite field hitting is less often referred to as "pushing" the ball. [3] : 187 [1] : 677
It is common for managers to implement the defensive tactic known as "shifting" for pull hitters. Players are moved to the side of the field where the pulled hit is likely to come. In 1923, defenses regularly shifted for Cy Williams, and throughout his career, Ted Williams faced the shift. [8]
For a left-handed power hitter like Harold Baines, a full "shift" moves the third baseman to the shortstop's normal position. The shortstop shifts to shallow right field between the first and second basemen. The outfielders will also shift towards the right side of the field. Analysts found that when the shift is on, pitchers also tend to throw more to the inside to encourage pull hits. [9]
As Sabermetrics developed, teams had more accurate information about batting tendencies, and they deployed the shift more frequently. In 2010, teams shifted 3,323 times. By 2017, the league was shifting 33,218 times a season. [10] In 2023, Major League Baseball essentially banned the full shift by requiring two infielders on either side of second base before each pitch. [11]
On-base plus slugging (OPS) is a sabermetric baseball statistic calculated as the sum of a player's on-base percentage and slugging percentage. The ability of a player both to get on base and to hit for power, two important offensive skills, are represented. An OPS of .800 or higher in Major League Baseball puts the player in the upper echelon of hitters. Typically, the league leader in OPS will score near, and sometimes above, the 1.000 mark.
In baseball, a home run, homerun or homer is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run is usually achieved by hitting the ball over the outfield fence between the foul poles without the ball touching the field.
Theodore Samuel Williams was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played his entire 19-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career, primarily as a left fielder, for the Boston Red Sox from 1939 to 1960; his career was interrupted by military service during World War II and the Korean War. Nicknamed "Teddy Ballgame", "the Kid", "the Splendid Splinter", and "the Thumper", Williams is widely regarded as one of the greatest hitters in baseball history in addition to being the last player to hit over .400 in a season.
Softball is a popular variation of baseball, the difference being that it is played with a larger ball, on a smaller field, and with only underhand pitches permitted. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hancock.
Shortstop, abbreviated SS, is the baseball or softball fielding position between second and third base, which is considered to be among the most demanding defensive positions. Historically, the position was assigned to defensive specialists who were typically poor at batting and were often placed at the bottom of the batting order. Today, shortstops are often able to hit well and many are placed at the top of the lineup. In the numbering system used by scorers to record defensive plays, the shortstop is assigned the number 6.
In baseball, a switch hitter is a player who bats both right-handed and left-handed, usually right-handed against left-handed pitchers and left-handed against right-handed pitchers, although there are some exceptions.
An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to catch fly balls and ground balls then to return them to the infield for the out or before the runner advances, if there are any runners on the bases. As an outfielder, they normally play behind the six players located in the field. By convention, each of the nine defensive positions in baseball is numbered. The outfield positions are 7, 8 and 9. These numbers are shorthand designations useful in baseball scorekeeping and are not necessarily the same as the squad numbers worn on player uniforms.
In baseball, an intentional base on balls, usually referred to as an intentional walk and denoted in baseball scorekeeping by IBB, is a walk issued to a batter by a pitcher with the intent of removing the batter's opportunity to swing at the pitched ball. A pitch that is intentionally thrown far outside the strike zone for this purpose is referred to as an intentional ball.
A first baseman, abbreviated 1B, is the player on a baseball or softball team who fields the area nearest first base, the first of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. The first baseman is responsible for the majority of plays made at that base. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the first baseman is assigned the number 3.
A baseball bat is a smooth wooden or metal club used in the sport of baseball to hit the ball after it is thrown by the pitcher. By regulation it may be no more than 2.61 inches (6.6 cm) in diameter at the thickest part and no more than 42 inches (1.067 m) in length. Although historically bats approaching 3 pounds (1.4 kg) were swung, today bats of 33 ounces (0.94 kg) are common, topping out at 34 to 36 ounces.
In baseball, the batting order or batting lineup is the sequence in which the members of the offense take their turns in batting against the pitcher. The batting order is the main component of a team's offensive strategy. In Major League Baseball, the batting order is set by the manager, who before the game begins must present the home plate umpire with two copies of his team's lineup card, a card on which a team's starting batting order is recorded. The home plate umpire keeps one copy of the lineup card of each team, and gives the second copy to the opposing manager. Once the home plate umpire gives the lineup cards to the opposing managers, the batting lineup is final and a manager can make changes only under the Official Baseball Rules governing substitutions. If a team bats out of order, it is a violation of baseball's rules and subject to penalty.
Throughout baseball's history, the rules have frequently changed as the game continues to evolve. A few common rules most professional leagues have in common are that four balls are a base on balls, three strikes are a strikeout, and three outs end a half-inning.
In baseball and softball, while there are nine named fielding positions, players, with the exception of the pitcher and catcher, may move around freely. The positioning for the other seven positions is very flexible, although they all have regular depths—distances from home plate, and sometimes lateral positioning. A shift means that a player is playing in a noticeably different location than the norm for his positioning. A fielder who is playing shallow or in is playing closer to home plate, while a player playing deep is playing farther from home plate than normal.
In baseball, batting is the act of facing the opposing pitcher and trying to produce offense for one's team. A batter or hitter is a person whose turn it is to face the pitcher. The three main goals of batters are to become a baserunner, to drive runners home or to advance runners along the bases for others to drive home, but the techniques and strategies they use to do so vary. Hitting uses a motion that is virtually unique to baseball and its fellow bat-and-ball sports, one that is rarely used in other sports. Hitting is unique because it involves rotating in the horizontal plane of movement, unlike most sports movements which occur in the vertical plane.
A ground rule double is a baseball rule that awards two bases from the time of pitch to all baserunners including the batter-runner, as a result of the ball leaving play after being hit fairly and leaving the field under a condition of the ground rules in effect at the field where the game is being played. An automatic double is the term used to refer to a fairly hit ball leaving the field in circumstances that do not merit a home run, such as when the ball's first bounce was within the field. The automatic double is commonly called a ground rule double.
The 1926 World Series was the championship series of the 1926 Major League Baseball season. The 23rd edition of the Series, it pitted the National League champion St. Louis Cardinals against the American League champion New York Yankees. The Cardinals defeated the Yankees four games to three in the best-of-seven series, which took place from October 2 to 10, 1926, at Yankee Stadium and Sportsman's Park.
Babe Ruth's called shot is the home run hit by Babe Ruth of the New York Yankees against the Chicago Cubs in the fifth inning of Game 3 of the 1932 World Series, held on October 1, 1932, at Wrigley Field in Chicago. During his at-bat, Ruth made a pointing gesture before hitting the home run to deep center field. One of the reporters at the game wrote that Ruth had "called his shot", using terminology from billiards. The episode added to Ruth's superstardom and became a signature event of baseball's golden age.
The infield shift in baseball is a defensive realignment from the standard positions, to place more fielders on one side of the field or another. Used primarily against left-handed batters, it is designed to protect against base hits pulled hard into the gaps between the fielders on one side. Originally called the Williams shift, it has periodically been referred to as the Boudreau shift or Ortiz shift since then. After shifts became very effective in reducing base hits by Major League Baseball (MLB) batters, MLB and the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) agreed to begin restricting shifts starting in the 2023 season.
This is an alphabetical list of selected unofficial and specialized terms, phrases, and other jargon used in baseball, along with their definitions, including illustrative examples for many entries.
The 1939 Cincinnati Reds season was a season in American baseball. The team finished first in the National League, winning the pennant by 4+1⁄2 games over the St. Louis Cardinals with a record of 97–57. The team went on to the 1939 World Series, which they lost in four straight games to the New York Yankees.
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