Cubs Pitching Rotation

We know two things about tonight's game between the Cubs and Padres at San Diego. Rich Hill will be the starting pitcher for the Cubs, and I'm unlikely to stay awake for the entire game, which starts at 9:05 CT.

The thing we don't know is what the pitching rotation will be after tonight's game. We don't know because Lou Piniella, Cubs manager, isn't ready to tell us.

For those of you not conversant with baseball lingo, "pitching rotation" has nothing to do with a pitcher who spins around like a figure skater, thereby drilling a hole for himself in the pitcher's mound.

But let's go back to an earlier time.

In the early days of baseball, managers didn't send in relief pitchers as quickly as they do now. They began with the assumption that the starter would pitch the whole game.

In those days, pitchers did spin around like figure skaters when the opposing batters started hitting their pitches into the hog lot beyond center field. They literally dug holes in which they could hide until everyone else forgot about them and went home.

That practice is long forgotten, but it's the true origin of the term "pitching rotation."