Pitcher

Pitcher

In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw a walk. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the pitcher is assigned the number 1. Traditionally, the pitcher also bats. Starting in 1973 with the American League and spreading throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the hitting duties of the pitcher have generally been given over to the position of designated hitter, a cause of some controversy. The National League in Major League Baseball and the Japanese Central League are among the remaining leagues which have not adopted the designated hitter position.

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Famous quotes containing the word pitcher:

    The work of the world is common as mud.
    Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
    But the thing worth doing well done
    has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
    ...
    The pitcher cries for water to carry
    and a person for work that is real.
    Marge Piercy (b. 1936)

    Indolence is heaven’s ally here,
    And energy the child of hell:
    The Good Man pouring from his pitcher clear
    But brims the poisoned well.
    Herman Melville (1819–1891)

    Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or
    the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the
    cistern.
    Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit
    shall return unto God who gave it.
    Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher, all is vanity.
    Bible: Hebrew Ecclesiastes (l. XII, 6–7)