Monday, March 01, 2010

Set the Alarm for Opening Day

If there is anything more boring than spring training I’m fortunate not to know what that might be. So here’s a few baseball nuggets gleaned from Bill Bryson’s Made in America, to help wile away the weeks before opening day.

In 1859 the National Association of Base Ball Players was formed. The title was a little ambitious since all clubs were from greater New York. The league insisted on amateurism and gentlemanly conduct. It got neither. The Brooklyn Excelsiors were paying a salary to a pitcher and the New York Mutuals were charging an admission of 10 cents (they must have been owned by a Steinbrenner). Fair play was rarely the rule. At least one crucial game was decided when the owner of one team had his dog frighten off an outfielder chasing a fly ball. A later day Yankee team used Billy Martin for a similar purpose, although Bill typically frightened his own players more than the opponents.

During its long adolescence in the 19th century, baseball contributed a vast vocabulary to our lexicon. Terms still in use today include walk for a base on balls, goose egg for a zero (1866), fungo and double play (1867) bunt (1872), bullpen (1877), shutout (1881), bleachers (1882), raincheck (1884), charley horse (1888), fan in the sense of a supporter (1890s), and to play ball in the sense of to cooperate (1901). For hit alone, more than a hundred terms had been recorded by 1938 including Texas Leaguer, squib, nubber, banjo, humpie, stinker, drooper and so on.

This week’s So You Think You Know Baseball stumper -

Baseball remains one of the most fertile grounds for inventive wordplay. Among recent notable additions are to dial 8 for a homerun and Linda Ronstadt for a good fastball. If you think you know the meaning and derivation of either of these terms, write your answer on the back of a 10 dollar bill and sent it to:

So You Think You Know Baseball

1 Picasner Plaza

Rochacha, NY

We’ll draw a winner from the thousands of correct entries and that lucky individual will be relieved from the tedium of reading this blog for the remainder on spring training. Ahha – so there is something more boring than spring training.

V-

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