Shortstop, where did this term come from

My daughter asked me this last night at the Knights game and I was sort of stumped. I always just took for granted that there was a SS and that was that. The only thing I could think of was that being in at 2nd base was kind of a "short stop" on your way to homeplate :huh: Anyone have a better story or reason?

 

i think it relates to the terms "short field" and "short fielder". since the shortstop (used to) play the deepest of all the infielders they were called the short fielder. they played deeper way back, and covered quite a bit of center field. i think this may have had something to do with the 475'+ center field depths.

anyways, i guess over time, it was mutated to short stop. thats the best i can do. theres no info on it anywhere on the web that i can find.

excellent question by your daughter. i can see this girl is gonna make a fine young lady. :xyzthumbs

 

According to Dickson's Baseball Dictionary: "The position was originally that of short fielder at the time of the Knickerbocker Rules (1854), but gave way to shortstop in the 1860s. It is clearly a blend of short+stop, probably created to better describe the defensive fucntion of the job performed in the short field."


That's the best I could find. :huh:

 

So I guess when they came up with that term only right handed players played as SS are lined up on left side of diamond. That isn't taking in the Thome switch

 

I'm missing something. Please explain this PP.

 

i think i know what you're trying to say, but i can't quite make it out.

 

When a right handed batter comes up chances are he hits a ball to left field. When Jim Thome comes up to bat lots of teams pull the SS artound rt behing 2nd base and 2nd baseman plays shirt rt field

 

thats what i thought you were saying, but the original post about it i still can't make out. possibly the most confusing thing i've ever read.

but i get your point. i'm pretty sure the shift is just a thing of the past 5 years or so. i don't recall ever noticing it before then.

 

yeah, they've started shifting for a lot of guys, but most are not as extreme as the shift for Thome. I don't know how teams play Sheffield, that fucker has a quick bat too.

 

Shortstop- The position used to be called 2nd Betweener (you know between 2nd and 3rd, 2nd base was called 1st betweener).... named after HOF Luis Aparicio...all 5"5" of him. "Look at that 'lil short fuc### stop the ball"....they re-named the position shortstop....just think, it could have been re-named Shortfuc###



....and Ted Williams was the first player that the "shift" was used against