“Hoffmeister, the new Pittsburg third baseman, will have to get his name clipped. It is in the Demontreville class, being too long for the box scores.” The Evening Journal (Wilmington, DE), July 27, 1897, p6
Previous earliest use (Dickson Baseball Dictionary, 3rd edition, 2009):
1ST USE. 1908. “In the Spring the young fan’s fancy turns to full box scores” (Grantland Rice, poem “In the Spring,” The Sporting Life, Apr. 4, p. 3; Stuart Y. Silverstein).
