“The wonderful Lajoie is always dangerous with the stick; perhaps most dangerous when the pitcher is purposely trying to waste a ball on him. Larry has long been known as a bad ball hitter, and pitchers seldom give him anything across the heart of the plate.” Billy Evans, “Doing the Unexpected in Baseball,” New-York Tribune, April 13, 1913, Sunday Magazine p7
No earliest use given in 2009 Dickson Baseball Dictionary