the.com/catcher
The one squatting behind home plate, calling pitches, and trusting nobody to protect their throwing hand.
means A person or thing that catches — most commonly the baseball player crouched behind the plate who receives pitches, blocks balls in the dirt, and directs the defense.
from Straightforward agent-noun formation: the verb 'catch' plus the suffix '-er,' meaning 'one who does the action.' 'Catch' itself traveled a winding road into English — from Old North French 'cachier' (to chase, hunt), rooted in Vulgar Latin 'captiare,' which comes from Latin 'capere,' meaning 'to seize or take.' So a catcher is, at bottom, a 'seizer' — a word that started out meaning hunter before it settled, centuries later, into squatting behind home plate.
- gear name
- tools of ignorance, self-deprecating baseball slang
- injury rate
- highest of any position, mostly foul tips
- game control
- calls pitches, reads hitters, manages the pitcher's ego
- rare breed
- fewest Hall of Famers of any position