strikeout looking
{{Redirect2|Backwards K|ꓘ|Fraser consonant|Fraser script|"ʞ"|Back-released click}}
In baseball or softball,{{cite web|url=https://ramblinwreck.com/jackets-squeeze-two-acc-wins-out-of-friday-double-header-against-the-orange-2/|title=Saturday Sees Tech Drop Final Game of the Series Against Syracuse|publisher=Georgia Tech Yellowjackets|date=April 5, 2025|accessdate=June 13, 2025}} a strikeout looking is a strikeout in which the batter does not swing on their third strike called by the umpire. In scorekeeping, strikeouts are a statistic denoted by the initial "K", with strikeouts looking being sometimes denoted by an inverted K ("ꓘ").{{cite web|last=Baccellieri|first=Emma|url=https://www.si.com/mlb/2023/03/09/mlb-rule-changes-scorekeeping-new-quirks|title=MLB's Rule Changes Bring New Quirks to the Timeless Art of Scorekeeping|work=Sports Illustrated|date=March 9, 2023|accessdate=June 13, 2025}} As the pitcher strikes out the batter looking, it can also be said that the batter was "caught looking".{{cite web|last=Castrovince|first=Anthony|url=https://www.mlb.com/news/best-baseball-slang-terms|title=From ace to yakker, a glossary of baseball slang|publisher=MLB.com|date=July 6, 2019|accessdate=June 13, 2025}}
History and analysis
The letter "K" was chosen to denote strikeouts by baseball writer Henry Chadwick, who first used it in 1859 in his box scores, which he is also credited with creating.{{cite web|url=https://www.news-journal.com/features/answer_line/answer-line-baseballs-backwards-k-a-mystery/article_1e0d1686-32d0-11e8-a41a-139415684537.html|title= Answer Line: Baseball's backwards K a mystery |work=Longview News-Journal|date=March 30, 2020|orig-date=March 28, 2018|accessdate=June 13, 2025}} Chadwick had already chosen "S" to denote a sacrifice in his scorekeeping, so he opted to use "K", as it was the final letter in "struck", which was the common way to refer to a batter being out after three strikes.{{cite web|last=Augustyn|first=Adam|url=https://www.britannica.com/story/why-does-k-stand-for-a-strikeout-in-baseball|title=Why Does "K" Stand for a Strikeout in Baseball?|work=Encyclopædia Britannica|date=September 21, 2016|accessdate=June 13, 2025}}{{cite web|last=DiFranza|first=Lenny|url=https://baseballhall.org/discover-more/stories/short-stops/k-as-in-cain|title="K" as in Cain|publisher=National Baseball Hall of Fame|accessdate=June 13, 2025}} Speaking to the Longview News-Journal, Cassidy Lent, a National Baseball Hall of Fame reference librarian, shared that the Hall of Fame knows of no single person who can be credited with first using the "ꓘ" to denote a strikeout looking. Lent added that "this might have to do with the fact that there are several different ways to record strikeouts", as not all scorekeepers use the backwards K, "and it probably did just evolve with scorekeeping".
File:Johnson strikes out looking to tie a franchise record. (8049292135).jpg second baseman Kelly Johnson strikes out looking in October 2012 to tie Toronto's franchise record for strikeouts.{{cite web|url=https://calgary.citynews.ca/2012/10/02/kelly-johnson-homers-as-toronto-blue-jays-beat-minnesota-twins-4-3/|title=Kelly Johnson homers as Toronto Blue Jays beat Minnesota Twins 4-3|work=CityNews|date=October 2, 2012|accessdate=June 13, 2025}}]]
In 2013, CBS Sports writer Matt Snyder examined Major League Baseball (MLB)'s pitchers with the most strikeouts looking that season. Snyder wrote that pitchers who possessed "great command" or "great stuff" were likely to be on the list; he described the former as pitchers who were able to "[hit] a spot low and outside that barely registers as a strike", with the latter being the skill to "fool the hitter into taking an obvious strike".{{cite web|last=Snyder|first=Matt|url=https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/leaderboarding-artists-of-the-looking-strikeout/|title= Leaderboarding: Artists of the looking strikeout |publisher=CBS Sports|date=November 23, 2013|accessdate=June 13, 2025}} Writing for MLB.com about the ways to cause an out, Chris Landers wrote that "it takes something truly special to cause a Major League hitter—a man who has dedicated his entire life to swinging a bat—to let strike three sail on by".{{cite web|last=Landers|first=Chris|url=https://www.mlb.com/cut4/ranking-every-kind-of-baseball-out-c284672554|title=Every way to make an out, ranked|work=Cut4|publisher=MLB.com|date=July 10, 2018|accessdate=June 13, 2025}}
In 2021, ESPN writer Tim Kurkjian wrote that strikeouts looking had increased, detailing that in previous eras, "hitters wanted to put the ball in play as much as the pitchers wanted them to put it in play. Today, hitters wait and wait and wait for that one pitch they can drive". Kurkjian added that, "in 2004, Adam Dunn struck out looking 66 times, which was more times than Ted Williams struck out in any season, looking or swinging. In 2018, the White Sox's Yoan Moncada struck out looking 85 times.{{cite web|last=Kurkjian|first=Tim|author-link=Tim Kurkjian|url=https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/31454952/how-k-became-most-destructive-letter-major-league-baseball|title=How the 'K' became the most destructive letter in Major League Baseball|publisher=ESPN|date=March 19, 2021|accessdate=June 13, 2025}}
See also
References
{{reflist|30em}}
{{Portal bar|Baseball}}
{{Baseball statistics}}