In baseball, a pinch hitter is a substitute batter. Batters can be substituted at any time while the ball is dead (not in active play); the manager may use any player who has not yet entered the game as a substitute. Unlike basketball, American football, or ice hockey, baseball does not have a "free substitution rule" and thus the replaced player in baseball is never allowed back into that game. The pinch hitter assumes the spot in the batting order of the player he replaces.
The player chosen to be a pinch hitter is often a backup infielder or outfielder. In the major leagues, catchers are less likely to be called upon because most teams have only two catchers, while pitchers are almost never used as pinch-hitters, because they tend to be worse hitters than other players on the team. The pinch hitter may not re-enter the game after being replaced with another player.
The American League of Major League Baseball, the Pacific League in Japan, and various other leagues use the designated hitter rule, such that pitchers seldom bat. This removes one possible situation where a pinch hitter may be desired.
Read more about Pinch Hitter: Usage, MLB All-time Pinch Hit Leaders, All-time Pinch Hit Records, Single Season Pinch Hits Records, Pinch Hit Home Runs
Famous quotes containing the word pinch:
“Vanity, or to call it by a gentler name, the desire of admiration and applause, is, perhaps, the most universal principle of human actions.... Where that desire is wanting, we are apt to be indifferent, listless, indolent, and inert.... I will own to you, under the secrecy of confession, that my vanity has very often made me take great pains to make many a woman in love with me, if I could, for whose person I would not have given a pinch of snuff.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)