Diamond: No one can agree on what constitutes ‘batting around,’ so we asked Vin Scully
From Jared Diamond at the Wall Street Journal on April 20, 2015, with mention of SABR member John Thorn:
The phrase “batting around” has existed in baseball as long as anybody can remember. It originated more than a century ago and remains a ubiquitous part of the sport’s lexicon.
But what does it mean? Among baseball’s most ardent fans, players and officials, there is no consensus about how many hitters must reach the plate in an inning to constitute batting around.
The debate has been raging for years in the sandlot baseball league of New York attorney Brian Mangan. Seeking to settle it, Mangan tweeted a question on March 13: “Batting around—is that when all 9 hitters bat, or does the first guy need to bat twice?”
Read the full article here: http://www.wsj.com/articles/mlb-heres-a-perplexing-question-to-bat-around-1429571356
Originally published: April 20, 2015. Last Updated: April 20, 2015.