Talk:Strikeout

Three K's

Dropped:

In older times, a batter who struck out three times in a game was given a white hood (as the three strikeouts would be recorded "K K K"), but this died out after the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.

This is suspicious for a number of reasons. One in particular is that a baseball scoresheet is in a graph format and there would be many blanks or even filled spaces between the three "K"'s. Even if a player struck out in three consecutive at bats it would not readily scan as "K K K". Another reason is that the team would need to keep a supply of white hoods handy, both at home and on the road, for the sole purpose of teasing its players.

Needs sourcing if this is going to go back in the article. Ellsworth 16:44, 30 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Certainly sounds like an urban legend to me. --UsaSatsui 07:52, 24 May 2005 (UTC)

We should include why the letter 'k' was chosen to represent a strikeout. I heard b/c of the three slashes. And also why the k's get turned around. 72.254.42.74

Missing leaders

Also missing leaders in most strikeouts in a single game.Gidge 22:15, 9 May 2006 (UTC)

Striking out a side in nine innings

While I was researching some on Nolan Ryan, I found out that he struck out a side in nine innings twice, and did it once in each league, the only pitcher ever to do that. I was wondering if somebody could compile a list of ALL the Baseball pitchers that have struck out a side in nine pitches. --Kitch 16:53, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

• See List of rare baseball events.Vidor 05:29, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Kerry Wood?

Just glancing at this page, I was wondering if someone could verify that the current leaders in strikeouts per nine innings [since 1900] is still accurate? With all the struggles and injury problems he's had I can't imagine he's still up there. Mientkiewicz5508 05:10, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

Verified at ESPN.com. Remember that time on the DL doesn't affect things like "strikeouts per innings", because innings just aren't being played. This is, however, a reason that stats are often given some minimum threshold (for instance, a pinch-hitter who goes 1-for-1 on the season isn't eligible for the batting title). — Lomn | Talk 13:28, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

K/9

I think there needs to be a clarification on this stat in terms of what qualifies for the list. There is obviously some sort of minimum number of IP or some other thing that is limiting this list. It would be nice to know what that qualification is. Cjosefy 21:02, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Wagner on the mets has career k/9 11.78, and 1026 career strikeouts, and the single season record for k/9 at 14.55 but doesn't appear in this article. If there is a minimum number of innings pitched required it should say so66.65.102.49 (talk) 16:47, 25 May 2008 (UTC)Whiteknight

RBI strike out

If there were a runner at third and the batter swung and missed and the ball got completely passed the catcher (either a passed ball of a wild pitch) and the runner were to score from third, I assume the batter would not get an RBI.

I've also seen a two base strike out, when the player swings and missed and runs to third before the catcher gets hold of the ball. Mglovesfun 02:15, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

(1) The passed ball is the same as an error with regard to runs batted in. No RBI in this case. (2) A few times in major history, a team left the field after a third strike in the dirt, and the batter got two or more bases before they caught on. In one case the batter reached third but was out trying to score. WHPratt (talk) 13:25, 29 April 2009 (UTC)

Current records

The list of active players in the top 50 is a mess. It says "as of January 4" but Smoltz's total is accurate as of today. Except that he is now 17th, not 19th, and that hasn't changed. Either this needs to be set back to the beginning of the year for everybody, or updated for everybody, or tagged accordingly. Matchups 15:01, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

The headers that say "Strikeouts per inning" should probably be "per game". I've never heard of someone getting 10 strikeouts in an inning.

Strikeouts per 9 IP

I've updated the K/9 stats as follows:

1. Reduced career stats list to 5 entries. 7 and/or 8 seemed unnecessarily arbitrary
2. Updated career stats inclusion criteria to that used at MLB.com (2000 IP career). Note that this removes an active player.

I've commented further on this stat at Talk:Strikeouts per 9 innings pitched. While I expect change #1 to be fairly uncontroversial, #2 may not be. I encourage those who disagree with the change to find another equally-if-not-more reliable standard for inclusion. Note also that we're already de facto using the MLB standard for single-season K/9 records. — Lomn 15:08, 30 September 2008 (UTC)

Less than / Fewer than

Just FYI, the rules book tends to say "before two are out". Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots 23:11, 22 June 2009 (UTC)

Five strikeouts in one innings (sic)

Do we really need all this? To begin with, it's wrong: After two are out, whether first base is occupied is irrelevant to the "dropped" third strike, and batters can still get on base. Even were it not, it should be pretty obvious that when a strikeout isn't an out, they can keep occurring ad infiniutm. WHPratt (talk) 16:39, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

I looked into this, and you were entirely right. The whole section about multiple strikeouts in an inning, aside from being somewhat poorly-written, was written under the mistaken apprehension that for a dropped third strike to be in play, there must be two outs AND no runner on first (in fact, it's either-or). The rambling and unnecessary explanation that you identified was the result of that misapprehension.

I cleaned up the text a little, and deleted a lot of the extraneous bits, including the section you pointed out. Thanks! JudahH (talk) 03:26, 23 May 2011 (UTC)

Nice job of cleaning up. Those multiple triple steals were giving me a headache.

I tried without success to identify the spring-training game in which Joe Niekro had a five-strikeout inning, but it remains just one step freom hearsay. No mention in the mainstream papers. I even checked a local Cocoa small-press paper from the period. I begin to suspect that, to remain this obscure, it may have been against a "B" team or a college team, or maybe in an intersquad game. WHPratt (talk) 13:56, 23 May 2011 (UTC)

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ث5غثقفغثقف — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.253.11.223 (talk) 17:44, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

Are those hieroglyphics a clue as to where we can find the elusive 5K inning? Please clarify! WHPratt (talk) 13:16, 27 June 2011 (UTC)

You never know about Google Translate, but when I posted the writing, it returned random letters. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 05:21, 3 October 2011 (UTC)

I googled [joe niekro 5 strikeouts in one inning], and while a lot of the entries parroted the wikipedia reference, this one[1] has some pretty specific information. It is claimed to have occurred in the first inning of an Astros-Twins exhibition game on April 7, 1976, at the New Orleans Superdome, the day before the season opener. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 05:30, 3 October 2011 (UTC)

Pitchers want to strike out as many as possible?

I am not sure this is universally true: some pitchers get outs by inducing batters to hit ground balls. If you can get a batter to ground out on the first or second pitch, you can keep your pitch count down and perhaps remain effective longer than a strikeout pitcher, who of necessity must pitch at least three pitches to a batter. Wschart (talk) 05:01, 3 October 2011 (UTC)

Depends on the pitcher and the game situation. It does remind me of what Crash Davis told Nuke LaLoosh in Bull Durham: "Strikeouts are fascist. Throw ground balls, they're more democratic." ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 05:22, 3 October 2011 (UTC)