With the baseball season now in full effect, more and more people are getting into the baseball spirit. The only problem with this is that more and more people don’t know what the heck they are talking about. These are common baseball terms that can help even the newest fan sound like they know what they are talking about in no time.
1. Check swing
No joke, this is actually my biggest pet peeve in life. A check swing is when a batter starts his swing and then pulls back because the batter doesn’t like where the pitch is going. However, people seem to think what makes this a strike for the batter is when his bat crosses the plane of the plate. By definition, a check swing is when, by the judgment of the umpire, the batter made a commitment to the pitch. Don’t believe me? Check chapter two of Official Baseball Rules (OBR).
2. Balk
A balk is a move by a pitcher made to intentionally deceive the runner. Common balks are quick pitching where the pitcher doesn’t come set, start and stop where they start a piece of their motion and go back to another stage of a pitchers motion. This can be where the pitcher fakes a throw to first base on a pick off move.
3. Infield Fly
A rule where if there are runners on first and second or bases loaded with less than two outs, the batter will be called out if the batted ball is a fly ball that an infielder can get with “ordinary effort”.
4. Mendoza Line
Originated from Shortstop Mario Mendoza who was a great fielder, but was not good offensively. His average hovered around .200 which has now become a term where a player’s offensive ability is so bad that their defense can no longer justify them staying in the Major Leagues. Mostly talking about if someone is batting just above or below the Mendoza Line.
5. No Hitter vs. Perfect Game
A perfect game is when a pitcher pitches a complete game without letting a batter reach first base for any reason. A no-hitter is essentially the same thing but runners can get on by a number of different ways including defensive errors, walks or hit-by-pitch.
6. Earned Run vs. Unearned Run'
Used for pitchers in calculating their Earned Run Average (ERA). An earned run is a batter who scores based on no errors or misplays. This can be if they scored from hitting a solo homerun. A run is unearned when a runner either gets on or scores based on a fielding error or another circumstance out of the pitcher’s realm of pitching control.
7. Infield Shift
A defensive positioning change when all the players in the infield adjust to fit the batting tendencies of the current batter. For Example, if a powerful lefty comes up to bat, the first baseman, second baseman, and shortstop will all be on the right side of the infield leaving only the third baseman on the left side of the infield.
8. Small Ball
When a team starts to bunt a lot and steal bases to manufacture runs, the team is considered playing “small ball”.
9. Quality start
When a pitcher goes six or more innings and gives up three or less earned runs. Unearned runs do not count for this total.
10. Fielder’s choice
An official ruling/stat where a player hits into an opportunity to get out but doesn’t because of the defense going for another out. For example, with a runner on first and less than two outs, the batter hits a grounder to the short stop. The shortstop throws it to the second baseman covering second base for the out on the original runner, but doesn’t get the batter out at first. The batter would not be awarded a hit, but instead, would be awarded a fielder’s choice.
