How did the letter "K" come to stand for strike-outs in baseball?

Answer 1

Don't know. Good question though. I do know that is keeping baseball score the K stands for a swinging strike out and the backward K means called out on strike.

Answer 2

The use of the last letter of Struck instead of the first to denote a strikeout dates back to when Henry Chadwick developed the box score in the late 1850's. Chadwick often used the last letter instead of the first, especially if he considered that letter to be the more prominent one in the word. Chadwick said "the letter K in struck is easier to remember in connection with the word, than S." He also used L for Foul and D for Catch on Bound. Only the K survived into the 20th Century. Source: Paul Dickson's The New Dickson Baseball Dictionary and Alan Schwarz's The Numbers Game. The common view that the K was used because the S was taken (by Sacrifice, Stolen Base, or Single) appears to be erroneous.

Answer 3

Being an Indians fan I hope for all of the Tigers to strike out every time. @chaos-"Why did they get rid of Brandon Inge but keep Raburn?" Probably because Inge had 1 HR, 2 RBI and a .100 batting average. And that was after his 3, 23, .197 performance from last year. Plus going into tonight's game Inge had a .967 Fielding PCT vs .988 for Raburn. @Smiley-Santiago has 0 HR, 5 RBI and a .154 batting average. For the season the Tigers 2B have combined for 2 HR, 9 RBI, and a .169 batting average. Their DH position is just as bad....0 HR, 9 RBI, .197. They really miss Victor Martinez.

Answer 4

When keeping track of the statistics involved in a baseball game, the official scorer uses an official scorebook. The scorebook uses shorthand symbols to aid in keeping track of what happens during each part of the inning & the game itself.

For example, 1B, 2B mean "single" & "double". BB means "base on balls" "S" or "SB" have been used to signify a stolen base.

The letter K has always been used as short hand for strikeout. That is why everyone calls it a K. That is how it is marked in the official scorebook.

Answer 5

From the Online Etymology Disctionary

As an indication of "strikeout" in baseball scorekeeping, first recorded c.1880, said to be from last letter of struck, since first letter was already being used as abbreviation for sacrifice. The invention of the scorecard symbols is attributed to newspaperman Henry Chadwick.

Answer 6

Because when scorekeeping originally started, K was the first letter in the word strikeout not designated to another statistic.
S- sacrifice,
T-triple (later changed to 3B),
R-run,
I-inning.
E- Error
It caught on, and there was never need for change.