Our collection of baseball terms
Select from the alphabet. If you don't find a term you need explained, or you know a good baseball phrase that you think should be here, please send us an email (mail icon bottom of page).
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W X Y
| Phrase |
Definition |
| Ace |
A team's best starting pitcher |
| Across the seams |
When a pitching grip has the fingertips at 90 degrees to the seams on the baseball. (vs a finger on the long seam) In truth there is only one seam |
| Action Pitch |
AP is a recently introduced metric to indicate the number of pitches thrown which have a consequence - an event which affects the game. It is a measure of pitcher efficiency. As far as we know, WebBall is the only resource which provides AP and AP/O (Action Pitches per Out) as part of its statistics package (the Team Site Manager service). |
| Air out |
(AO) in scorekeeping, any out recorded when defensive player catches the ball before it lands on the ground - in other words a flyball or pop-up |
| Alley |
The section of the outfield between the outfielders - right-center and left-center. Also called 'the gap' |
| Anterior |
The front side or forward facing part of anything, so when you hear about an ACL injury it's the Anterior Cruciate Ligament - a connection from the front of the knee joint and crossing the interior. Cruciate means cross. There's also a PCL but we shouldn't have to tell anyone what posterior means. |
| Appeal |
The act of a fielder in claiming violation of the rules by the offensive team. Must be done before the next pitch |
| Around the horn |
A double play from third baseman to second to first. It's the longest way to make a double play - from the long sailing route around the horn of Africa from England to India. (Don't ask.)") |
| Aspirin |
A small white pill - hence a fastball that's hard to see. (And it gives batters headaches, we suppose.) |
| Assist |
(A) in scorekeeping, earned by a defensive player who handles the ball on an out but is not the one who puts out a runner. Not counted if the play results in an error |
| At bat |
(AB) in scorekeeping, number of times a player has been up to bat. Not counting plate appearances which resulted in a walk, sacrifice hit or sacrifice fly or error. Note: a batted ball which results in fielder's choice out does count as an AB against the batter |
| AVG |
In scorekeeping the official abbreviation for Batting Average. BA or BAv are also used |
