What does it mean when you see people putting up a sign with a “K” on it when a pitcher has a no hitter going?
I have noticed it in two movies now, and I am wondering what it means. Thanks!
The fans are calling for a strikeout; why it means that I don’t know.
“K” means strikeout, from notation used by scorers. “KKK” used to indicate a three-strikeout inning by a pitcher can be a bit disconcerting.
As others have said it’s for a strikeout. It doesn’t have to be a no-hitter, it can be done in any game. It’s usually done for “strikeout pitchers” and it’s used to keep track of how many strikeouts they’ve had. Sometimes other symbols will be used. I believe ice cream cones have been used in the past for David Cone, beer mugs used for David Wells, Japanese symbols for Nomo or Irabu …
“K” is used to signify a strikeout because SO is already used in scoring, though I can’t remeber what it means. A backwards “K” means the batter was struck out “looking.”
Staff Report on the subject: In baseball scoring, why is a strikeout marked with a K?
Staff Report on In baseball scoring, why is a strikeout marked with a K? The K apparently comes from the last letter of “strucK”
Without looking at the reports, which probably answer this, I can tell you that “SO” is used to mean “shutout.”
“SO” may be “shutout,” but K was applied to a strikeout because “S” was taken for “sacrifice.”
In the days of Henry Chadwick, who came up with all this stuff, a player who went down on strikes was often said to have “Struck,” rather than “struck out.”
Here’s another nifty cite on scoring a baseball game.
Just to play devil’s advocate:
There is no clear-cut evidence to definitely say that Chadwick or Kelly first used the “K” to indicate a strikeout.
Almost certainly one of them did so. If you have a definitive cite to show who did it, please step up.
It may be worth mentioning the origin of Dwight “Doc” Gooden’s nickname, “Dr. K,” as a play on the nickname of Julius “Dr. J” Erving of the NJ Nets.
I recall Gooden having a “K corner” at Shea where people hung out signs recording each of his Ks in each game. I believe it started his “Rookie of the Year” season of 1984. How common was this practice before Gooden?
Colibri I asked this question a while ago and we were not able to come up with any earlier than Gooden. Some people were guessing but no one could remember an earlier usage.
Here’s the link:
When did fans start with counting K’s in baseball?
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=130678
Don’t they usually put the third “K” upside-down for that reason?
A backwards “K” indicates a called third strike (as opposed a batter swinging and missing.)
Years ago, a friend and I went to a Pittsburgh Pirates game. Since, we were poor college students we got the cheapest tickets and sat in the nose-bleed section.
There weren’t many people in the outfield section, so we moved down and sat next to the “Kmart K-club” guy. He was the guy who put the Ks up after every strikeout. I asked the guy if I could do it and he said I could if I bought him a beer. I did and I placed the Ks after every strike out.
For the third strikeout, he told me to leave a space bewteen the Ks, so it wouldn’t look like KKK. After the fourth strikeout, I filled in the blank space.