In baseball or softball, a strikeout occurs when a batter racks up three strikes during a time at bat. It means the batter is out. A strikeout is a statistic recorded for both pitchers and batters, is denoted by K. A "strikeout looking"—in which the batter does not swing and the third strike is called by the umpire—is denoted by a ꓘ. Although a strikeout suggests that the pitcher dominated the batter, the free-swinging style that generates home runs leaves batters susceptible to striking out; some of the greatest home run hitters of all time—such as Alex Rodriguez, Reggie Jackson, Jim Thome—were notorious for striking out. A pitched ball is ruled a ball by the umpire if the batter did not swing at it and, in that umpire's judgement, it does not pass through the strike zone. Any pitch at which the batter swings unsuccessfully or, that in that umpire's judgement passes through the strike zone, is ruled a strike; each ball and strike affects the count, incremented for each pitched ball with the exception of a foul ball on any count with two strikes.

That is, a third strike may only occur by the batter swinging and missing at a pitched ball, or the pitched ball being ruled a strike by the umpire with no swing by the batter. A pitched ball, struck by the batter with the bat on any count, is not a foul ball or foul tip, is in play. A batter may strike out by bunting if the ball is hit into foul territory. A pitcher receives credit for a strikeout on any third strike, but a batter is out only if one of the following is true: The third strike is pitched and caught in flight by the catcher. Thus, it is possible for a batter to strike out, but still become a runner and reach base safely if the catcher is unable to catch the third strike cleanly, he does not either tag out the batter or force him out at first base. In Japan, this is called furinige, or "swing and escape". In Major League Baseball, it is known as an uncaught third strike; when this happens, a strikeout is recorded for both the pitcher and the batter, but no out is recorded. Because of this, a pitcher may be able to record more than three strikeouts in one half-inning.

It is possible for a strikeout to result in a fielder's choice. With the bases loaded and two strikes with two outs, the catcher drops the ball or catches it on the bounce; the batter-runner is obliged to run for first base and other base-runners are obliged to attempt to advance one base. Should the catcher field the ball and step on home plate before the runner from third base can score the runner from third base is forced out. In baseball scorekeeping, a swinging strikeout is recorded as a K, or a K-S. A strikeout looking is scored with a backwards K, sometimes as a K-L, CK, or Kc. In terms of game play and looking strikeouts are equivalent. Despite the scorekeeping custom of using "K" for strikeout, "SO" is the official abbreviation used by Major League Baseball."K" is still used by fans and enthusiasts for purposes other than official record-keeping. One baseball ritual involves fans attaching a succession of small "K" signs to the nearest railing, one added for every strikeout notched by the home team's pitcher, following a tradition started by New York Mets fans in honor of "Dr. K", Dwight Gooden.

The "K" may be placed backwards in cases where the batter strikes out looking, just as it would appear on a scorecard. Every televised display of a high-strikeout major league game will include a shot of a fan's strikeout display, if the pitcher continues to strike out batters, the display may be shown following every strikeout; the use of "K" for a strikeout was invented by Henry Chadwick, a newspaper journalist, credited as the originator of the box score and the baseball scorecard. As is true in much of baseball, both the box score and scorecard remain unchanged to this day. Chadwick decided to use "K", the last letter in "struck", since the letter "S" was used for "sacrifice." Chadwick was responsible for several other scorekeeping conventions, including the use of numbers to designate player positions. Those unaware of Chadwick's contributions have speculated that "K" was derived from the last name of 19th century pitcher Matt Kilroy. If not for the evidence supporting Chadwick's earlier use of "K", this explanation would be reasonable.

Kilroy raised the prominence of the strikeout, setting an all-time single-season record of 513 strikeouts in 1886, only two years after overhand pitching was permitted. His record, however, is limited to its era since the pitcher's mound was only 50 feet from the batter during that season, it was moved to its current distance of 60'6" in 1893. The modern record is 383 strikeouts, held by Nolan Ryan, one better than Sandy Koufax's 382. For 55 years, Walter Johnson held the career strikeout record, at 3,508; that record fell in 1982 to Nolan Ryan, passed by Steve Carlton, before Ryan took the career strikeout record for good at 5,714. Early rules stated that "three balls being struck at and missed and the last one caught, is a hand-out; the modern rule has changed little. The addition of the called strike came in 1858. In 1880, the rules were changed to specify. A adjustment to the dropped third stri

Excess Baggage is a 1997 American crime-comedy film written by Max D. Adams, Dick Clement, Ian La Frenais, directed by Marco Brambilla about a neglected young woman who stages her own kidnapping to get her father's attention, only to be kidnapped by a car thief; the film stars Alicia Silverstone, Benicio del Toro, Christopher Walken. Emily Hope stages her own kidnapping to get the attention of her father, she puts herself into the trunk of her own car, tapes her legs and mouth, handcuffs her hands and calls the police so they can come "rescue" her. But unexpectedly, a car thief named Vincent Roche steals the car with her in it. Emily finds herself kidnapped, only the kidnapper doesn’t know what to do with her. Christopher Walken shows up as Emily’s Uncle Ray, Jack Thompson as Emily’s father, Harry Connick, Jr. as Greg, Vincent’s car-stealing partner. The script for Excess Baggage was the winner of the first annual Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition where it was picked up by Barry Josephson when he was at Sony and made into the 1997 comedy starring Alicia Silverstone.

Alicia Silverstone as Emily Hope, a rich girl with a black belt in karate and a tendency for trouble. She had burned down her school library to get the attention of her father when she was younger, her relationship with her father is quite cold, but she has a solid friendship with her Uncle Ray and builds one with Vincent after he accidentally abducts her. Benicio del Toro as Vincent Roche, a successful and experienced car thief who supports himself with his work, he is referred to as "an innocent thief". After this his entire life is turned upside down as he gets implicated in several schemes and becomes dependent on his "hostage" to survive. Christopher Walken as Raymond "Uncle Ray" Perkins, Emily's uncle and cares for her well-being much more than her own father, he suspects that this kidnapping situation is not a real kidnapping and might be one of Emily's "games" to get some much craved attention from her dad. His first encounters with Vincent are rather hostile, but the two form a camaraderie.

Jack Thompson as Alexander T. Hope, Emily's father and a rich and successful businessman, he pays little to no attention to his daughter, which leads to her performing such outrageous stunts to get it as burning down her school library or staging her own kidnapping. It is hinted. Harry Connick Jr. as Greg Kistler, Vincent's partner-in-crime, but it appears that Vincent does most of the work. They steal cars and sell them to people like Gus and Stick, which lands them into trouble when their operation is burned down and Vincent is on the lam. Nicholas Turturro and Michael Bowen as Stick and Gus, two hoodlums who have had business transactions which Vincent and Greg but turn on them. Leland Orser and Robert Wisden as Detectives Bernaby and Sims, two detectives who are investigating Emily's "kidnapping". Sally Kirkland as a bartender/waitress at a cafe near Vincent's home. Ray gets information about Vincent from her during his investigation of the kidnapping, she only appears in two scenes. The film features cameo appearances by voice-actor David Kaye, April Telek and Matthew Robert Kelly, all of them uncredited.

This was the first film produced by Alicia Silverstone under her production company First Kiss and was filmed in Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia. The yellow leather jacket worn by Silverstone's character was sold to actor/stand-up comic Paul Rawson for $890; the jacket came with Silverstone's black suede pants and lipstick print t-shirt. Silverstone was nominated for a Razzie Award for Worst Actress where she lost to Demi Moore for G. I. Jane. Benicio del Toro was hand-picked for the role by producer Silverstone after she had seen The Usual Suspects, it is reported that Silverstone and del Toro dated around the time of filming. Del Toro was nominated for an ALMA Award for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Crossover Role in a Feature Film. Christopher Walken worked with del Toro in two other 1996 films and The Funeral, he would star in Blast from the Past with Silverstone two years later. "I don't know why everybody thinks he's so crazy," Silverstone noted. "I think. I think maybe I was his mom in a past life or something."

Del Toro stated that the best advice he had been given regarding acting came from Walken: "When you're in a scene and you don't know what you're gonna do, don't do anything." Excess Baggage debuted poorly in its opening weekend. By the end of its run, it had only grossed $14,515,490 based on a $20 million budget; the film received negative responses from critics and holds a 32% "Rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Clint Morris noted that the film "Outstays its welcome after a while, but Silverstone fans will still be in heaven - she's as cute as and as cool as ever.". Roger Ebert gave the film a positive review, mentioning that Alicia Silverstone was "wonderful" in Clueless, so entertaining that no followup could satisfy the audience. Ebert mentioned Silverstone is "OK" in Excess Baggage but "no better than OK" as he felt that she was miscast. James Berardinelli praised the cast but found the script "frustratingly ordinary and unambitious". Many critics praised Benicio del Toro's performance. Del Toro earned an ALMA Award nomination for his performance.

Excess Baggage was released on VHS and DVD in February 1998. It was released on Blu-

Creepmime were a Dutch death metal band active from 1991 to 1997, recorded two full-length albums, both on Mascot Records. The band was formed in 1991 in Leiden settling on a line-up consisting of Rogier Hakkaart, Andy Judd, Marja Koelewijn, en Gerrit Koekebakker. In February 1992, the band recorded a metal demo titled Anthems for a Doomed Youth, which led to a record deal with Mascot Records. In August 1993, after the rhythm section was replaced, the debut album Shadows was recorded. Creepmime played in support of Cynic in the Netherlands and toured the Netherlands with them. In 1994 and 1995 more line-up changes followed, but in August 1995 Creepmime recorded their second album, Chiaroscuro; the release was followed by a three-week European tour with countrymates Sinister, followed by a Dutch tour with Threnody and Ministry of Terror. After the departure of Andy Judd, the band fell apart. In 1997, Van der Graaf, Brama restarted Creepmime and started writing new songs. However, due to a knee injury suffered by Brama, the band collapsed again in 1998.

Andy Judd - guitar Rogier Hakkaart - guitar, vocals Marja Koelewijn - bass Gerrit Koekebakker - drums Frank Brama - drums Mark Hope - bass Joost van der Graaf - bass, vocals Jaco Voorzaat - guitar Aad Giezen - guitar Anthems for a Doomed Youth was Creepmime's first and only demo, recorded in 1992, contains five songs in doom metal style. In August 1993, Creepmime recorded Shadows, a more death metal oriented album though retaining some doom metal elements; the album was produced by Patrick Mameli, released by Mascot Records in 1993. It was released in the USA in 1994 by Pavement Music. "The Fruits of Ill Virtue" "A Serenade for the Tragic" "Suffer the Shadows" "The Way of All Flesh" "Chinese Whispers" "Soon Ripe, Soon Rotten" "Gather the Shattered" "My Soul Flayed Bare" Chiaroscuro was Creepmime's second and last album and released by Mascot Records in 1995, sees the band move toward playing melodic death metal. "The Colour Still Unwinds" – 4:36 "Scarlet Man" – 3:31 "In the Flesh" – 5:30 "Clarity" – 3:22 "Diced" – 4:23 "Chiaroscuro" – 7:31 "Black Widower" – 4:08 "Fools Paradise" – 4:56 "King of Misrule" – 5:19 "Gods Thoughts" – 5:52 Creepmime at Muziek Centrum Nederland