Strikeout
Strike three. For a hitter, the out that moves nobody.
What it actually is. Three strikes. Written K on a scorecard since Henry Chadwick used the last letter of struck in the 1860s, and a backwards K when the third strike is taken rather than swung at.
What a scout reads off it. A strikeout is one out and no chance of anything else, but it is not the disaster it was treated as for a century. What matters is the trade: a hitter who strikes out 180 times and hits 40 home runs is a good hitter, and one who strikes out 180 times and hits 12 is not on the team.
Where the lines are. Strikeout rates have climbed in every decade since the 1920s and the modern game runs at roughly one in four plate appearances leaguewide, which is why raw totals across eras mislead badly.
How it lies to you. Compare strikeout rate rather than strikeout totals whenever two players are from different eras. The 1980s hitter who struck out 100 times was a free swinger; today he is average.
Batter's Eye: look up anything in baseball