REFERENCE
A backwards K means the batter struck out looking: strike three was called and he never swung. A regular K is a strikeout swinging. Here is where the K comes from, how to score every kind of strikeout, and a backwards K you can copy.
Copy the backwards K
Keyboards do not have one, but this character looks like a backwards K and pastes into texts, posts, and spreadsheets.
It comes from Henry Chadwick, the 19th century baseball writer credited with creating the box score. In his day a batter who struck out was said to have “struck,” and S was already taken for the sacrifice. So Chadwick used K, the last letter of struck, and explained in his 1874 manual that K was easier to remember in connection with the word than S would be.
The K stuck for 150 years. Flipping it to show a called third strike came later, as a scorekeeper’s shorthand, and today you will see backwards K signs held up in the stands every time an ace freezes a hitter.
Write the K in the batter’s box for that at-bat. The direction of the K tells you how strike three happened.
A dropped third strike still counts as a strikeout for the pitcher even when the batter reaches safely, which is how a pitcher can record four strikeouts in one inning. The numbers in 2-3 are position numbers, catcher to first base; see baseball position numbers and the rest of the scoring symbols.
A backwards K means the batter struck out looking: the umpire called strike three and the batter did not swing. A regular K means the batter struck out swinging.
Henry Chadwick, the writer who created the box score, used K because it is the last letter of "struck," the common word for a strikeout at the time, and S was already used for sacrifice.
There is no backwards K on a keyboard, but the character ꓘ looks like one and works in texts, posts, and spreadsheets. Copy it from the box at the top of this page.
Yes. The pitcher is still credited with the strikeout. Scorekeepers write the K plus how the batter reached, such as K-WP for a wild pitch or K-PB for a passed ball.
Next up: what E6 means and how to score a baseball game from the first pitch.
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