I just finished reading a book called "Watching Baseball Smarter: A Professional Fan's Guide for Beginners, Semi-experts and Deeply Serious Geeks" (by Zack Hample). I guess I'm in one of the last two categories of baseball fans. It has a great overview of pitching, batting, fielding, and managerial strategies, as well as interesting information on stadiums, awards, and umpires (which reminds me, there's a book that just came out called "As They See 'Em" (by Bruce Weber) about officiating crews in the majors). I really appreciate the glossary in the back, because it reminds me of my favorite baseball terms. Here's a nice selection of lingo (as excerpted from the book):golden sombrero: the dubious distinction of striking out four times in one game
$8 taxi ride: a very long home run
worm-burner: a ground ball that takes many small bounces (how I also describe some of my golf shots)
Punch 'n' Judy: a hitter with little power
aspirin tablet: a pitch thrown so fast that the ball looks like a little white speck
Baltimore Chop: a batted ball that hits home plate (or the hard dirt near it) and bounces so high that the fielders don't have time to make a play
on the interstate: batting below .200 (I-95, for example, looks like .195)
Lord Charles: a dominant curveball
human rain delay: a player who takes a long time to get ready between pitches
Several of those terms I've never heard used in all my years of baseball watching, or I have heard different terms, leading me to wonder if some of them are regional. For example, I have always heard of batting below .200 as being below the Mendoza line and have heard the term 'banjo hitter' more commonly than Punch 'n Judy.
ReplyDeleteNow if you could come up with the etymology of some baseball cliches, that would be an interesting read. Did the Baltimore Chop get it's name because the dirt is particularly hard in Baltimore? Did Lord Charles really have a dominating curveball? I know the Chuckman doesn't.