Word: batterer
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...batter, narrow-eyed and tightlipped, leaned in toward the plate, and crouched to make a smaller target of his stocky little frame. He wriggled, fidgeted with his cap, hitched up his belt, got his feet dug in, began waggling his bat. Just as the pitcher started his windup, he let down the bat, stepped out of the box and elaborately wiped an imaginary speck out of his eye. The pitcher waited, ball clutched in his throwing hand. With a swagger, the batter walked over to the rosin bag, picked it up, dusted his hands and wiped them on the seat...
Finally, the exasperated pitcher managed to get through his motion. As the ball whipped toward the plate, the batter's cool blue eyes examined it with icy intentness. The ball, a hairbreadth outside the strike zone, plopped into the catcher's glove. Not until the umpire called "ball," almost resignedly, did Eddie ("The Brat") Stanky allow himself the small grimace that, during a game, passes for a satisfied grin...
...anything, ma'am," said Carter, and he did. He swept rooms, washed dishes and waited on table. When the trains came through, he sold fried chicken to the passengers. ("We fried the chickens in a thick batter, and you couldn't tell the drumstick from the gizzard.") He cleaned harness, curried the town doctor's horse and frequently slept on the livery-stable stairs. ("That was the only time I ever envied anyone. I envied people that slept in beds...
Hannie was aghast at the idea of a beanball or "duster" (a pitch aimed at the batter's head to scare him away from the plate). Righthander Hannie never has to resort to such strategy, because ordinarily he simply strikes out half the opposing batters. He has no change-of-pace pitch or slow ball, only a curve ("which I invented myself") and a fast ball ("which I hope some day to be as good as Feller"). Because Honkbal is played on soccer fields, Hannie has never had the advantage of pitching from the raised (15 in.) mound...
...match, 109-54. In the second match, the U.S. did better, only lost 94-83. The Scotsmen played a camay, conservative game, in sharp contrast to the generally slam-bang U.S. style. The Scots used blockade tactics in front of the scoring circle until the skip, comparable to cleanup batter in baseball, could send his final stone down to nudge his teammates' into the bull...