Date:  Mon, 10 Jul 1995 11:04:12 EDT

From:  Larry Horn <LHORN[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]YALEVM.CIS.YALE.EDU>

Subject: Re: "K" as symbol for "strikeout"



And remember that a backwards K (sorry, no ascii character) represents a called

strike-out.  That's just for scorecards, though; the K banners for strike-out

pitchers neutralize all whiffs to the canonical (forward) representation. As

for when those banners began, I'm not sure, but the first ones I recall date

back to the heyday of Dwight ("Doc") Gooden in the mid-1980's for the Mets.

(If I'm not mistaken, his nickname is itself a truncation from the full form

Doctor K [based on the basketball star Julius "Doctor J" Erving], where of

course the K is yet again for strikeouts.)

 Much more than anyone wanted to know about K's, I'm sure.