Why is a strikeout called a K?
405612
For the last letter in struck.  The letter S was already in use for a sacrifice.  K for swinging, backwards K for looking.
651181
The "Mendoza Line" is named after Mario Mendoza, a slick-fielding but weak-hitting shortstop who played for nearly a decade at the major-league level because of his glove and not his bat.\nMendoza's career average finished at .215 - which established the benchmark for mediocrity in hitting (though most use the simpler .200 marker).  An everyday player who cannot cross the Mendoza Line may find themselves back on the bus to the minors or headed to the waiver wire...
535560
It is not an out, but gets counted as a strikeout.  Remember, first base can't be occupied at the time of the catcher's drop for the batter to advance to first.
259934
walk\nhit by pitch\nstrikeout wild pitch\nerror\nfielder's choice\ncatcher's interference
325343
The strike of 1994 really hurt MLB and it's attendance. In 1998 when McGwire and Sosa were chasing Maris's single season HR record,  it brought fans back to the game. MLB commissioner Bud "The DUD" Selig didn't want to upset the flow of $$$$$ generated by the long ball, therefore, even though he knew what was happening, he decided to do nothing. It's only because of recent publications of books like "Juiced" and "Game of Shadows" Selig was forced to finally take a stand.
361273
It might be kind of interesting if you kept track of HRs and Ks for both pitchers and hitters. As it is, it doesn't sound like much I would be interested in.
487334
When a team closes the game, and they are WINNING, with any one of it's relievers based on matchups.  They do not have a dominant closer on their team like a Yankees team with Mariano Rivera.  Make sense?
513009
It's the bullPEN.  And I think it refers to the pen like holding area the the relief pitchers wait and then warm up in before joining the game.\n\nFor other theories check out the link
515456
Strikeout is negative thing for batter. He is supposed to make contact with the ball. But the object for the pitcher is to make the batter miss or throw the ball over the plate between the batter's waist and his knee's. This is the typical "strike zone".. Miss the ball 3 times and you're "out"..If perhaps the batter after already having 2 strikes to the "count", he hits the ball, tipping it backwards, sorta like a foulball, but it goes right in to the catchers mitt, it's an automatic out.\n\nTeam's offense gets 3 outs per inning. Nine innings a game. 162 games in a season. Strikes...\nGood thing for pithcher to throw. Not really a bad thing for a hitter to get unless he gets three in an at-bat. \nPitchers objective-Throw strikes and get strikeouts or get the person to hit the ball to a player on the defense hopefully on a pop up or a ground ball to the infield for an easy out.. Do that alot and you are great pitcher.\n\nMerril must be a batter and strike out alot.
876512
For a strikeout pitcher:\nFastball\nChange up\n12-6 curve\nSlider\n\nFor a pitcher who just wants batters out:\n4 and 2 seam Fastball\nSinker\nChange-up\nCurveball\n\nFor Wakefield:\nKnuckleball\nKnuckleball\nKnuckleball\nFastball\nKnuckleball
1056561
nbabest9 confuses baseball with basketball.  6 - 3 mean the shortstop threw to the first baseman for the putout.  The fielders are numbered to enable shorthand scoring thus:  Pitcher 1, catcher 2, first baseman 3, second baseman 4, third baseman 5, shortstop 6, left fielder 7, center fielder 8, right fielder 9.  \n\nFor example a fly out to right field is scored "F9."  Or "F-9."  Another example:  a double play on a grounder to second baseman who throws to shortstop, who then throws to first is simply scored "4-6-3."
1069681
Used to?\n\nPitchers would do this to scuff up the ball.  Scuffing the ball would enable them to create movement on their fastballs simply by holding the scuffed side "out" (probably because of greater air resistence).  Some pitchers even cut a hole in their gloves and put similar colored sandpaper in it's place so they could do this.
1040497
Pitcher's statistic: Ratio of strikeouts (k) to walks (bb).  If a pitcher has struckout 10 batters, and walked 5, his k/bb = 10/5, or 2.0.  \n\nIt's an indication of his command, if he strikes out more batters than he walks, he has good control of his pitches.
387393
Three strikes for a strikeout.  Three outs per half an inning.  The pitcher threw 9 balls, all for strikes.  Striking out all the batters in a half inning is called striking out the side.  Normally, a pitcher throws more than 9 balls per half inning - fouls and called balls.  So to strikeout the side with the minimum needed is a feat.
476142
To get the easy out. If they throw it home and they get safe that means the runner is on first and more runs could possibly come in
410998
It's based on scoring shorthand ... before we ubergeeks sat at laptops ... people would get a scorecard and actually have a shorthand system that they could follow every pitch of every game.\n\nYou're right one is the pitcher ... two is then the catcher ... three is first base ... and so on across the position players. From your short hand, 4-6-3 would be a ball hit directly to the second baseman who threw it to the shortstop covering second and then the shortstop threw it over to the first baseman for a double play.  \n\nI attached a link to a website that tells you how to actually score a game. If you want to watch every moment and see the game unfold, this is one of the best ways to do it.
352479
In scoring, a strikeout is recorded as a backward-facing K. Some scorers record strikeouts where the batter didn't swing at the last pitch with a backwards-facing K, also recorded as K-C. The use of "K" for a strikeout was invented by Henry Chadwick, a newspaper journalist. The letter "S" was used to coin "sacrifice" so Mr. Chadwick decided to use "K", with "K" being the last letter in "struck". Mr. Chadwick also invented many other baseball scoring abbreviations, such as using numbers to designate player positions.\n\nPlease choose as best if you like :)