Crossword clues for catcher
catcher
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Catcher \Catch"er\, n.
One who, or that which, catches.
(Baseball) The player who stands behind the batsman to catch the ball.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"one who catches," in any sense, mid-14c., agent noun from catch (v.).
Wiktionary
n. 1 Someone or something that catches. 2 (context baseball English) The player that squats behind home plate and receives the pitches from the pitcher 3 (context chiefly US colloquial English) The bottom partner in a homosexual relationship or sexual encounter between two men.
WordNet
n. (baseball) the person who plays the position of catcher
the position on a baseball team of the player who is stationed behind home plate and who catches the balls that the pitcher throws; "a catcher needs a lot of protective equipment"; "he plays behind the plate" [syn: plate]
Wikipedia
Catcher is a position for a baseball or softball player. When a batter takes his/her turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the ( home) umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. In addition to these primary duties, the catcher is also called upon to master many other skills in order to field the position well. The role of the catcher is similar to that of the wicket-keeper in cricket.
Positioned behind home plate, the catcher can see the whole field, and is therefore in the best position to direct and lead the other players in a defensive play. The catcher typically calls for pitches using hand signals. The calls are based on the pitcher's mechanics and strengths, as well as the batter's tendencies and weaknesses. Foul tips, bouncing balls in the dirt, and contact with runners during plays at the plate are all events to be handled by the catcher, necessitating the use of protective equipment. This includes a mask, chest and throat protectors, shin guards, and a heavily padded catcher's mitt.
Because the position requires a comprehensive understanding of the game's strategies, the pool of former catchers yields a disproportionate number of managers in both Major League Baseball and Minor League Baseball, including such prominent examples as Connie Mack, Steve O'Neill, Al López, Mike Scioscia, and Joe Torre. The physical and mental demands of being involved on every defensive play can wear catchers down over a long season, and can have a negative effect on their offensive output.
Because of the strategic defensive importance of catching, if a catcher has exceptional defensive skills, teams are often willing to overlook their relative offensive weaknesses. A knowledgeable catcher's ability to work with the pitcher, via pitch selection and location, can diminish the effectiveness of the opposing team's offense. Many great defensive catchers toiled in relative anonymity, because they did not produce large offensive numbers. Notable examples of light- hitting, defensive specialists were; Ray Schalk, Jim Hegan, Jim Sundberg and Brad Ausmus. Schalk's career batting average of .253 is the lowest of any position player in the Baseball Hall of Fame. That he was selected for enshrinement in 1955 was largely a tribute to his outstanding defensive skills. Catchers are often able to play first base and less commonly third base.
In the numbering system used to record baseball plays, the catcher is assigned the number '2'. (See Baseball scorekeeping.)
Usage examples of "catcher".
He looked like a veteran athlete, a catcher or a hockey defenseman, recently retired.
Kevin Millwood was on the mound for the Braves, peering in to the catcher for the sign, looking to jam up the Mets leadoff hitter, Jose Reyes.
He was a fairly good outfielder, but excelled either as a catcher or baseman.
Two days later he was already playing, standing in the street, a catcher in stoopball, taking a lean on a parked car to let the bus go by.
The Taiwanese catcher dropped over backward onto his hands and scuttled away crabwise.
But the positions which he is specially bound to back up are the second and third bases, not only on all throws from the catcher, but from any other fielder, where it is possible for him to get in line with the throw.
He cannot wait until the catcher throws or he will be too late to get in line.
Throws from catchers with a slinging motion tend not to follow a straight line but to tail off toward the first-base side of second base.
On the top of the hills, small forests of windmills spun in the offshore breeze and on the roofs of many houses, sun catchers glinted in the morning light.
The surface of the steel was honeycombed with thousands of tiny force field projectors powered by a complex system of sun catchers and storage units built into the pylons.
Sun catchers bloomed like exotic flowers on the top of the vast machine.
Twice in the first four innings the Oakland catcher has taken outside fastballs and driven doubles to the opposite field.
With all the new movers and shakers pushing their way into her circle of influence, Star Catcher had to be out there as much as possible.
There were fifteen hundred draft-eligible players in North America alone that he would rather own than this misshapen catcher.
The leading scouting publication, Baseball America, has just published its special issue devoted to the 2002 draft, and in it a list of the top twenty-five amateur catchers in the country.