“Thirty-four-year-old Tommy [Bridges], starting his 14th season as a Tiger, lacked pinpoint control at the start….” Watson Spoelstra, Associated Press “Tigers Face Feller Today After 4-2 Win,” Herald-Press (St. Joseph, MI), April 19, 1941, p7
NOTE: Spoelstra, covering the Tigers for AP, used the term in reference to several Tiger pitchers in articles in the early 1940s before it was picked up by other reporters later in the decade.