Where did it come from?

[Jenksy]

I've been playing ball for 20+ years. When someone strikes out, it is put in the book as a "K".. Where does the "K" come from? Where did it originate from?? Is it just a letter that was pulled from the word strike or does it have another meaning???? I guess this is just one of those things that make ya go "hhmmmm"....

[LDUB]

According to Total Baseball, The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Baseball, Third Edition, sportswriter Henry Chadwick is credited with inventing the baseball scoring system the media and fans still use today back in the 1850s. He was the first person to assign letters for each play that could take place on the field and numbers to every defensive player on the field. That way he could record the result of every at bat easily and quickly. Chadwick needed to use the letter "S" for sacrifice, so he decided a strikeout would be recorded as the letter "K", which was the last letter in the word "struck" — a common term for striking out.

[akalsey]

Chadwick was also an Englishman and didn't understand baseball. That's why a walk isn't credited as a successful at bat -- Chadwick thought a batter who walked must have made a mistake.

[Atl Blue]

There is another legend that it was brought over from boxing, which uses KO for a knock out, the theory being the batter was "knocked out".