“Force, the natty little short stop, sent a daisy clipper, which was muffed by Hanna, and he made first, but ventured too far away and before he could get back found the ball in Allison’s hands.” Cleveland Leader, July 9, 1869, p4
Previous earliest use (Dickson Baseball Dictionary, 3rd edition, 2009):
1ST USE. 1888. A ball bouncing through a meadow as “the sphere in the act of parting a Kranklet from her bonnet” (Thomas W. Lawson, The Krank: His Language and What It Means).
