“Three times the bald veteran [Frank Isbell] came to bat with a runner in scoring position on the sacks, and on each occasion he whaled the ball into the hence.” Paul H. Bruske, Detroit News, September 12, 1908, p3
NOTE: “Into the hence” seems to have been a phrase somewhat akin to “into the ether” or “into the future.”
No earliest use given in 2009 Dickson Baseball Dictionary
