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.