12/21/24
January 30, 2009
Baseball Words: The words we use in baseball are so much more well, let's say gentlemanly and childlike and comfortable. Just about every word or phrase can of corn, bang-bang play, dinger, tater, gopher ball, round-tripper, sinker, slider, sounds like something a small child came up with long ago. A fight is a rhubarb. A rundown is a pickle. A knuckleball dances. And when there are men standing on base, you can still say that there a ducks on the pond.
Then there are the nicknames. I like going 0-for-4, with four strikeouts, as a "golden sombrero."
posted by jjzucal at 07:19 PM on January 30, 2009
Great post!
Brought back memories of the 87 World series.
I had mistakenly brought my future wife along to one of the games.
She really has no interest in sports, though she was trying to show some interest in what I liked.
Early in the game she goes "wow, he really put some mayonaise on that pitch" I look at her and go "umm, do you mean mustard?" she goes "what's the difference, they're both condiments" The guy in front of us laughs.
An inning later she remarks "oh, they got that two out thing you like"
I reply "honey, it's called a double play, and I only like it when the Twins are in the field". The guy in front turns around and gave me a man hug.
Twenty years later we still joke about it.
posted by dviking at 01:07 PM on January 31, 2009
Thanks for this, justgary. Many of the expressions show just how old the game of baseball really is. For example, the words "around the horn" date back to the days before the Panama Canal, when to sail from the east coast to the west, you had to sail around Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America. The baseball rule book takes a lot of fun out of the colloquial expressions; a walk is a one-base award and a ground-rule double is a two-base award. Like any set of rules, it is the language of lawyers. We fans know better, so we always expect to see at least one twin kill in a twin bill.
posted by Howard_T at 01:25 PM on January 31, 2009
Does anyone know what a 'clutch bingle' is?
posted by owlhouse at 04:18 PM on January 31, 2009
not sure on a clutch bingle beyond the obvious bingle at a critical juncture.
I have heard bingle used (though not in years) to refer to either a hit in which the batter slapped at the ball, or a bunt single. An old announcer for the Twins used the term for how Rod Carew used to drag bunt (now there's a term!) for singles.
posted by dviking at 06:09 PM on January 31, 2009
The only word in pro sports that means anything anymore is "money"
posted by ozzieray at 10:29 AM on February 01, 2009
Yeah, clutch bunt single sounds about right.
posted by justgary at 07:00 PM on February 01, 2009
That was a fun read, justgary. Thanks!
My fav: You can homer, but you cannot singler, doubler or tripler.