Cleanup Hitter Baseball Dictionary

The player who bats in the fourth position in the batting order, usually reserved for a player with a high batting average and the ability to drive in runs with extra-base hits. The assumption is that he is most likely to get a hit that will score any or all of the preceding players who have reached base, thus "cleaning" or "clearing" the bases of baserunners. "Lou Gehrig was the prototypical and most famous cleanup hitter, not only because of his uniform number, 4, but also because he cleaned the bases a record 23 times with grand slams." (Tom Verducci, Sports Illustrated, Apr. 4, 2005). Sometimes spelled "clean-up hitter." Syn. cleanup, 3; cleanup man; Big Bertha, 1; number-four hitter; fourth-place hitter. 1st Use. 1907. (New York Evening Journal, Apr. 15; Edward J. Nichols).

1. The most dependable or most skillful person in any group, such as in a team of lawyers. 2. A political candidate who can help effect reform or a sweeping change in policy. In supporting Congressional candidate William S. Mailliard in 1952, an editorial in the San Francisco Examiner termed him a "clean-up hitter" who would help get rid of "the New Deal, the Square Deal, the Fair Deal and all the rotten deals we've had for the 20 long years." (Peter Tamony)