Is it common knowledge among baseball fans that a backwards "K" means the batter struck out looking?

Yes. It's pretty common knowledge. You're not clueless. It's hard for us baseball fans to know every minute detail of the sport.

I learned about it in the late 1960's when I helped my Dad keep score at our local Little League. You see it today when fans hang their "K" signs at the ballpark.

Here is the history of the scorekeeping "K":

Henry Chadwick, one of the first newspaper journalists to take a literary interest in baseball, built upon a scoring technique devised by fellow New York journalist M. J. Kelly. "Chadwick created a minutely detailed scorecard so he would have a point of reference and recollection when he wrote his articles about the game."

Chadwick invented the modern boxscore back in the 1860s.

Chadwick also invented the system we use to indicate fielders (pitcher=1, shortstop=6, right field=9, etc.), and the abbreviations we use for events (HR, HBP, BB, so on).

Chadwick needed "S" for sacrifice, so he chose K for strikeout - K being the last letter of "struck," which was then in more common use than the term "strikeout."

Some people carry it further, using a K for a swinging strikeout, and a backward K for being caught looking. Some folks go with the more intuitive "SO," but this creates confusion with the abbreviation for "shutout," so "K" has remained the abbreviation of choice.

Backwards K In Baseball

It s at the same time common knowledge, and perhaps not completely common knowledge. I d guess most baseball junkies are aware, so it should probably be considered common knowledge among avid fans, but it s something that might slip by you if you didn t give it any thought. For instance, for years I never really bothered to notice that some K s were backwards and some weren t.

I did, but my brain didn t care. Not enough to wonder about the meaning anyway. It just wasn t important to me. Period. Then one day I thought, "WTF?" Suddenly I cared. It sounds like you fall into that category. Of course, once I got it I was like, "Obviously!" I mean, who doesn t love when some poor bastard gets "caught lookin" while your favorite strikeout artist is on the mound? And a crooked *** backasswards K is the perfect "**** you."

Well after playing softball for so many years and my dad being the official score keeper, I did. There are many things however that I have been clueless about, for instance I didn't know how a run was scored until I was like 8 or 9. And I found out last year that the manager of the World Series champions got to pick his all star staff. In other words, none of know everything!

I don't think it is common knowledge for average baseball fans that don't play baseball/softball. I however know that a backwards K is a strikeout looking because I play travel softball and I know that in a scorebook that is what it stands for. An extreme baseball fan might also know this (even if they don't play baseball/softball?.

No, you're not one of the few clueless: you have a LOT of company! I've known the meaning of forward vs backward Ks seemingly forever but am always surprised by the number of people at a game who ask other fans why some Ks have been "flipped."

Too most of the big baseball fan junkies who follow their baseball team at least 75+ but most of them 100+ games will know that a backwards "K" means struck out looking. Your average baseball fan who doesn't really pay too much attention just looks to see if their team wins, may not really know that.

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It means that the batter struck out without swinging at the last pitch...he only looked at it.

I'm sorry, but I've known this all the time. I thought even casual fans knew this, much more a pretty knowledgeable baseball fan. Maybe you're one of the fans who has never kept score of a ballgame. I love keeping score so I guess this is why I know, but really, I thought everyone knew this. Oh,well, it's not the end of the world. he he. Have a nice day.

I do not know that it is common knowledge. the only reason I know is, my boys and husband are AVID baseball fans, little league players and a coach. A backwards K is never a good thing.