“Hitters don’t hit home runs—pitchers throw them” (baseball adage)

“Hitters don’t hit home runs—pitchers throw them”  is a baseball adage meaning that if a home run is hit, then a pitcher made a mistake with the pitch. Atlanta Braves Manager Bobby Cox said in October 2003, “Hitters don’t hit home runs. Pitchers throw them.”
 
“That was always what Greg Maddux meant when he used to say, ‘Hitters don’t hit home runs, pitchers give them up’” was cited in print in 2009.  Baseball pitcher Greg Maddux played for the Atlanta Braves from 1993 to 2003 and possibly picked up the saying from Bobby Cox.
   
 
ASAP Sports
NL DIVISION SERIES: CUBS v BRAVES
October 1, 2003
Bobby Cox
ATLANTA, GEORGIA: Game Two
(...)
Q. Is there a certain type of pitcher that’s given your hitters more trouble than others?
BOBBY COX: Hitters don’t hit home runs. Pitchers throw them. If we get mistakes, we’ll hit some. I don’t think there is any particular kind of pitcher.
 
2 October 2003, St. Louis (MO) Post-Dispatch, “Kline’s comment regarding Prior draws Cubs’ ire” by Dan O’Neill, pg. D4:
“Hitters don’t hit home runs, pitchers throw them,” Cox said. 
 
26 April 2009, Philadelphia (PA) Inquirer, “On Baseball: Where ticket prices, homers soar,” pg E124:
That was always what Greg Maddux meant when he used to say, “Hitters don’t hit home runs, pitchers give them up.”
   
Cypress (TX) Mud Cats
The Over the Wall Gang
Posted on June 21, 2010 by rhughes
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HITTERS DON’T HIT HOME RUNS, PITCHERS THROW THEM. If a pitcher can paint down and away at the knees, rarely will anyone hit one out and if he does it was luck.
     
Google Books
The Rotation:
A Season with the Phillies and the Greatest Pitching Staff Ever Assembled
By Jim Salisbury and Todd Zolecki
New York, NY: Running Press
2012
Pg. ?:
Greg Maddux, the great former Atlanta Braves Cy Young winner, used to say that hitters don’t hit home runs, pitchers give them up.
 
New York (NY) Times
How Wright Prevailed in Duel With Top Closer
By RAY GLIER
Published: May 4, 2013
(...)
There is a saying in baseball that hitters do not hit home runs, pitchers throw them.
   
Portland (OR) Tribune
Beavers win outright Pac-12 title the right way
Created on Sunday, 26 May 2013 10:00. | Written by Kerry Eggers.
(...)
“Coach (Pat Bailey) always says, ‘You don’t hit home runs; pitchers throw home runs.’ That’s pretty much true. Look for pitches, put a good swing on it and it’s going to go out.”