"If you think you're going to hit into a double…

“If you think you’re going to hit into a double play, strike out” is a joke line that a baseball manager tells one of his players. “Earl Weaver always said, ‘If you feel like you’re going to hit into a double play, strike out’” was cited in print in 1993. Despite the many credits of this line to Baltimore Orioles manager Earl Weaver (1930-2013), no documentary evidence of Weaver saying this has been found.

“Jim says Kaneda gets off some beauts, like sending the pitcher up to bat and saying, ‘If you feel you’re going to hit into a double play, strike out instead’” was cited in February 1975. American baseball player Jim Lefebvre was talking about Japanese baseball manager Masaichi Kaneda. A similar joke about an American baseball player and a Japanese manager was written in Robert Whiting’s The Chrysanthemum and the Bat (1983).

Google Books
15 February 1975, The Sporting News, pg. 12, col. 2:
Jim says Kaneda gets off some beauts, like sending the pitcher up to bat and saying, “If you feel you’re going to hit into a double play, strike out instead.”
(Jim Lefebvre on baseball manager Masaichi Kaneda—ed.)

Chicago (IL) Tribune
When the Colorado Rockies sent closer Darren Holmes and…
May 09, 1993|By Alan Solomon
(...)
“Earl Weaver always said, ‘If you feel like you’re going to hit into a double play, strike out.’”

Google Books
Basic Concepts of Intercultural Communication:
Selected Readings
Edited by Milton J. Bennett
Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press, Inc.
1998
Pg. 116:
(A Japanese baseball manager and an American player. From The Chrysanthemum and the Bat, a 1983 book by Robert Whiting.—ed.)
Manager: (Serious thoughtful expression) Tell him that if he feels he is going to hit into a double play, he should strike out instead. That’s better for the team.
Team Interpreter: The manager says if you have the feeling you are going to hit into a double play, you should try to strike out.

Google Books
Sports Prose
By Dave Tobias
Great Quotations
1999
Pg. 23:
“He always said that if you feel like you’re going to hit into a double play, strike out.” Colorado Rockies manager Don Baylor recalling some wisdom from Earl Weaver.

Sports Illustrated
August 13, 2001
Baseball
Stephen Canned
(...)
Hall of Fame manager Earl Weaver used to tell the Orioles, “If you feel you’re going to hit into a double play, strike out.”

Drew Rozell
July 14, 2010
The Good Sense to Strike Out
(...)
As Hamilton hit into the twin killing, I found myself talking to my TV once again:

If you’re going to hit into a double play, at least have the good sense to strike out…

(This line comes from legendary Baltimore Orioles manager/curmudgeon Earl Weaver.)