Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. sales talk, esp. when inflated; also in fig. use.

1846		Swell’s Night Guide 51: Fuzzy had got his pecker up, and was stalling up to Sall, but she cut his pitch.
c.1864		A. Vance Chickaleary Cove 3: At Groves’s you’re safe to make a sure pitch [F&H].
1876		C. Hindley Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack 63: We tossed who should make the first pitch.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 21 Feb. 10/2: A bevy of clerical gentlemen were ‘doing a pitch’ lately on the subject of local option and the liquor question generally.
1908		A.N. Lyons Arthur’s 17: A Creepin’-Jenny beard like that would spoil the softest pitch.
1914		Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Sl. 65: pitch [...] the term used by street fakirs to describe the operation of beguiling the public from a soap box, a platform, a carriage or automobile selling merchandise from an eminence like an auctioneer.
1947		B. Schulberg Harder They Fall (1971) 90: I felt I had to make a pitch in the right direction.
1955		B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 170: Father Barry’s pitch had been to urge the boys to co-operate with the Crime Commission.
1960		H.S. Thompson letter 19 Oct. in Proud Highway (1997) 233: I have applied for jobs [...] and made countless pitches of the ‘I’ll do anything for money’ variety.
1977		D. Powis Signs of Crime 196: Pitch (a) Sales talk.
1986		J. Ellroy Suicide Hill 71: ‘Then here's the pitch: [...] If you don't do what I want. my buddies chop Sally to pieces’.
1989		J. Morton Lowspeak.
1998		L. Stringer Grand Central Winter (1999) 181: I do my pitch and it falls flat.
2000		W. Shaw Westsiders 209: Goldsby [...] is won over by Babyboy’s pitch.
2012		W. Keyser ‘Carny Lingo’ in http://goodmagic.com 🌐 Now you have a ‘tip,’ and it’s time to give them ‘the pitch,’ the part where you describe in glowing hyperbole the glories to be seen inside.

2. (orig. US) any plan that should benefit its maker, a scheme, esp. a piece of trickery or deceit.

1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 148/1: The porter had heard something of the affair [...] probably thinking we would never return for what we had left, and in that case our property would fall into his hands [...] but our appearance put a ‘crab’ on that ‘pitch’.
1914		E. Dyson Spats’ Fact’ry (1922) 74: Then this accounts fer yer comin’ into money. But how-jer strike the pitch!
1940		J.H. O’Hara Pal Joey 46: I never made a pitch with Herta.
1949		W.R. Burnett Asphalt Jungle in Four Novels (1984) 178: What’s the pitch?
1951		Kerouac On the Road (The Orig. Scroll) (2007) 314: ‘And what’s the pitch?’ ‘No pitch man, I only want to know what’s been happening.’.
1965		R.L. Pike Mute Witness (1997) 48: Well, that’s the pitch.
1974		V.E. Smith Jones Men 8: Bennie Lee had made a pitch and learned his lesson the hard way.

3. a conversation, a chat.

1897		T.J. Henry Claude Garton 58: Mostyn [...] frequently called on Claude at his rooms for a yarn—a pitch he called it.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 7 July 14/4: Met ’im myself one day, an’ ’ad a bit of a ‘pitch’ ter ’im, an’ after ’e’d bin spoutin’ ’bout ten minutes I says ter ’im, ‘Ain’t yer goin’ ter put ther flour down fer a bit?’.
c.1905		J. Furphy Buln-Buln and the Brolga (1948) 🌐 I’d like to have a pitch with you – sposen I wouldn’t be in your road .
1915		Bulletin (Sydney) 11 Dec. 51/2: He turned in at Casey’s pub and had a pitch with the blonde barmaid.

4. the line of talk used by a swindler.

1905		Little Falls Herald (MN) 31 Mar. 3/3: How to Operate the Shell Game with Profit [...] Make a hot lamas before the rube gets the green in his mit, and do a ringer before making another pitch.
1932		Sun. Mail (Brisbane) 13 Nov. 20/8: ‘Hoons’ is the technical term for hoodlums; a ‘pitch’ is what the ‘whizz-men’ call a trick .
1934		G. & S. Lorimer Stag Line 161: You gotta have a pile of pitch for the come-on, see?
1957		R. Prather Always Leave ’Em Dying 69: What’s the pitch, Randy? I’ve never heard him in action. He found a new way to get to heaven, or what?
1963		in T.I. Rubin Sweet Daddy 22: You know the pitch, Doc. Paid her but she would have done it for free, she liked my action so much. What crap!

5. an area conducive to crime.

1941		V. Davis Phenomena in Crime 87: His best ‘pitch’ for cocaine and heroin.
1977		D. Powis Signs of Crime 196: Pitch [...] (b) street site used by pavement salesmen or three-card trick men, (c) a prostitute’s territory.

6. (US) a situation.

1946		W.P. McGivern ‘Manchu Terror’ in Goodstone Pulps (1970) 24/1: What’s the pitch? The guy looks at me like he knew me before somewhere.
1951		M. Spillane Long Wait (1954) 22: A lot of things happen in five years. What’s the pitch?
1963		M. Spillane Return of the Hood 10: By then Wally Pee and Izzy Goldswitz had caught the pitch and were begging me with their eyes to get the hell out.
1974		G.F. Newman You Flash Bastard 27: Those arrests and convictions [...] might have been the zenith of an ephemeral career, and he wondered what could follow that might achieve a worthwhile pitch.