Wiktionary
n. (context baseball English) The infield defensive player that stands near first base.
WordNet
n. (baseball) the person who plays first base [syn: first sacker]
Wikipedia
First base, or 1B, is the first of four stations on a baseball diamond which must be touched in succession by a baserunner in order to score a run for that player's team. A first baseman is the player on the team playing defense who fields the area nearest first base, and is responsible for the majority of plays made at that base.
In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the first baseman is assigned the number 3.
Also called first sacker or cornerman, the first baseman is ideally a tall player who throws left-handed and possesses good flexibility and quick reflexes. Flexibility is needed because the first baseman receives throws from the other infielders, the catcher and the pitcher after they have fielded ground balls. In order for the runner to be called out, the first baseman must be able to stretch towards the throw and catch it before the runner reaches first base. First base is often referred to as "the other hot corner"—the "hot corner" being third base—and therefore, like the third baseman, he must have quick reflexes to field the hardest hit balls down the foul line, mainly by left-handed pull hitters and right-handed hitters hitting to the opposite field. They usually are power hitters that are in the top of the league in Home Runs and extra base hits while maintaining a .270 plus batting average.
Usage examples of "first baseman".
At the moment of impact, Joe stopped on a dune, turned, began to charge Shorty, pulled up short, ripped off an obscene finger as he screamed a string of obscenities in Spanish, and then he almost slugged his cousin Floyd when the first baseman picked up the ball and tagged Joe out.
Burt hit straight over the first baseman, a line drive that struck the front of the right-field bleachers.
Then came the sixth, in which Frank Holden, the first baseman, distinguished himself by rapping out a three-bagger, coming in a few seconds later on a hit by the man following him.
My heart gave a little leap of joy--he was the very image of the blond first baseman.
The batter, a big left-handed-hitting first baseman named Kobeski, swung late, lifted a lazy fly ball to left.
He dropped the rifle and went into a first baseman's stretch, scissoring himself into a split and reaching out with an imaginary mitt to snag the equally imaginary ball.
Occasionally we'd snag one and whale it over to first, and occasionally the first baseman, who was well over two metres tall and built like a tank, would catch our throws, and we'd slap our gloves together.
Of course sometimes it would still be rising when it passed ten metres over the first baseman's head, but it was moving, no doubt about it.
The joke all rides on the fact that poor Costello simply can't understand that the first baseman's name is Who, and Abbott certainly isn't doing much to help clear up his confusion.
Giving me a careful once-over, he said I looked just like Moose Skowron, Yankee first baseman and my favorite player.
The ball he'd just bunted was bouncing between the catcher and the first baseman.