#78736
08/22/2002 4:44 PM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
OK, sports fans. I'm not. Here's a question. Why is the bull pen called the bull pen? Is it some kind of macho name--you know, the place for those testosterone-loaded bulls of the bat or is it because those guys shoot a lot of bull in the bull pen?
Bat regards,
WW
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#78738
08/22/2002 5:02 PM
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
The origin of the term "bullpen" has long been debated in baseball. One popular notion is that the term came from Bull Durham tobacco. At one time most ballparks had ads on the outfield fences and Bull Durham was always near the spot where the relief pitchers warmed up. In those days all games were day games and the signs provided much needed shade. In 1910 the Bull Durham name was so closely associated with the ballpark, that signs were in almost every park in the country. These signs stood 40 feet long by 25 feet high. The company offered a $50 reward to any hitter who could hit a ball off one. In addition, any player hitting a home run in a park with a bull on the fence got a carton of tobacco. In 1909 there were 50 signs in place and 14 players won. The next year with nearly 150 Bull Durham signs being hit 85 times, $4,520 in cash and more than 10,000 pounds of tobacco was given out.
While this seems to be the most convincing theory of the terms origin, it should be noted that the term "bullpen" had long been used in the United States to denote either a log enclosure for holding cattle or a holding area for prisoners. This concept of it being an enclosure, along with some help from the Bull Durham promotion, may have strongly influenced the terms use.
Another theory likens the relief pitchers to the reserve bulls in bullfighting, who are pinned nearby the arena should the starting bull be deemed unable to fight.
TEd
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#78739
08/22/2002 5:04 PM
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
from Men and Work by George Will
One of baseball's impenetrable mysteries is the origin of the term "bull pen." Some historians believe it comes from the fact that around the turn of the century relief pitchers (to the extent that there were any) often warmed up in front of Bull Durham tobacco signs that were painted on many outfield fences.
But as early as 1877, the roped-in area in foul territory (where late-arriving fans were hearded like bulls) was call the bullpen by the local Cincinatti press. Bill James says he has solved another mystery. He knows who invented relief pitching: Napoleon.
No joke. Napoleon believed that every battle tended, for reasons of its own, to resolve itself into immobile, equal positions. He believed, in essence, in the law of Competitive Balance as applied to a battle.
So on the day of a battle he would take two or three regiments of crack troops and sequester them a distance from the shooting, eating and sleeping and trying to stay away.
Over the course of a day or several days, the troops in the field would take positions and lose them and retake and relose them, growing ever more and more weary, their provisions in shorter and shorter supply, and their positions ever more and more inflexible.
Finally, at a key moment in the battle, with everyone else in the field barely able to stand, he would release into the fray a few hundred fresh and alert troops, riding fresh horses and with every piece of their equipment in good repair, attacking the enemy at his most vulnerable spot.
He did this many times and with devasting effect--and if that's not relief pitching, I don't know what is.
howzat for bull, penned.
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#78740
08/22/2002 5:13 PM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
One of baseball's impenetrable mysteries is the origin of the term "bull pen."
Leave it to a neophyte to hit upon one of the impenetravle mysteries first time up to bat, huh?
Baseball regards and where's the mustard?
WW
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