“Pitchers are always on to the free swingers or ‘swipers’ and will change their pace on such batters, dishing up slow ‘lobs’ and swift ones in the most perplexing profusion.” Buck Ewing, Sunday News (Wilkes-Barre, PA), July 16, 1899, p14. (Also appeared in other papers)
Previous earliest use (Dickson Baseball Dictionary, 3rd edition, 2009):
1ST USE. 1909 (Baseball Magazine, November, p. 6; Edward J. Nichols).
