What does batting around mean?

[PaulFolk]

Why is everyone assuming that around means "in a circle"? Look up around in a dictionary, and there are like 15 different definitions.

One definition is "in succession" or "from beginning to end." If you send up all 9 hitters, you've sent up every hitter in the lineup in succession from beginning to end. That qualifies as "batting around" to me.

I guess the only way to be sure what the term means is to figure out who first coined it, and go ask them. And then berate them for causing this debate in the first place.

[Redskins Rick]

Why is everyone assuming that around means "in a circle"? Look up around in a dictionary, and there are like 15 different definitions.

One definition is "in succession" or "from beginning to end." If you send up all 9 hitters, you've sent up every hitter in the lineup in succession from beginning to end. That qualifies as "batting around" to me.

I guess the only way to be sure what the term means is to figure out who first coined it, and go ask them. And then berate them for causing this debate in the first place.

Its been around as long as I can remember watching baseball and thats a bloody long time.

[Malike]

Batting around - The batter who leads off the inning gets a second at bat. Batting around.

[Redskins Rick]

I think this thread as the makings of a classic thread.

[PaulFolk]

I really am going back and forth now. Does the announcer usually say they have batted around when the 9th guy in the inning comes up or the tenth?

Every time I've heard it, it's when the ninth guy comes up.

[blid]

No, if you start at 9, the circle is closed when you get back to 9. I believe you have batted around after the conclusion of the 9th AB. As soon as his AB is over, the circle is closed.

But if the batter who started the inning hasn't come back up to bat, how can you say the circle is closed?

Like all those people say:

The hand wouldn't be resting there until the team bats in the next inning. Therefore they didn't bat around unless the guy that batted first in the inning, bats for a second time in the inning.

You don't start with 9. You start with 1. Batter number 1. The first batter of the inning. If the inning ends with the 9th batter, then there's a gap from 9 to 1.

[TouchemAll]

9 is close enough for me, but 10 works, WHO CARES, why am I replying to this? :laughlol:

If we could get one inning every game where we bat around either 9 or 10 I would be one happy camper. :rofl:

[PaulFolk]

9 is close enough for me, but 10 works, WHO CARES, why am I replying to this? :laughlol:

If we could get one inning every game where we bat around either 9 or 10 I would one happy camper. :rofl:

That was one of the great things about yesterday's game. The Orioles batted around twice. And it doesn't even matter which definition of batting around you use!

[Creamsicle]

http://deadspin.com/baseballs-version-of-the-dress-what-does-batting-arou-1699097944

Ten batters or nine?

I'm quoting the OP of this thread in order to provide an example of Posting Around.

[blid]

Why is everyone assuming that around means "in a circle"? Look up around in a dictionary, and there are like 15 different definitions.

One definition is "in succession" or "from beginning to end." If you send up all 9 hitters, you've sent up every hitter in the lineup in succession from beginning to end. That qualifies as "batting around" to me.

I guess the only way to be sure what the term means is to figure out who first coined it, and go ask them. And then berate them for causing this debate in the first place.

Well, the answer to where the term comes from is in the Deadspin article. And the answer is:

10

For the final word, Diamond turned to Major League Baseball’s official historian, who explained that the term “bat around” comes from a baseball forerunner first played a couple hundred years ago. The definition from that game, called town ball, would seem to indicate that ten batters makes the most sense:

In this cricket-like game, an entire side batted before an inning was over. In at least one variation, Thorn said, there was an added stipulation: If the last player in the order hit a home run, the entire lineup would bat again—or “bat around.”

[UpstateNYfan]

I don't see how that's correct. The 1st point and the 9th point, in the circle, aren't going to be the same point.

Each batter in the order is not a single point on the circle, but 40 degrees of the circle. 9 batters times 40=360 degrees, you are at the starting point, you have done one rotation. Now, let's discuss the "fair pole".

[Creamsicle]

Okay, auto racing: one lap equals crossing the start/finish line TWICE.

[OFFNY]

What does batting around mean?

It means you had a good inning.

[UpstateNYfan]

On your first birthday you are starting your second year of life. So, the second lap is really the first?

[NashLumber]

Batting around - The batter who leads off the inning gets a second at bat. Batting around.

That's how I see it. And when the phrase is used, it's usually when you recognize the batter and go "Oh, him again. We've batted around this inning."