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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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All right, this thread has now proven for a fact that liguaphiles are nerds (me included). We have all missed the obvious <out of baseball> terminology of going around the bases. How many of you gentlemen have not talked about getting to first base with your girlfriend as a teenager, and wishing for “ heaven by the dashboard light” by getting to second, third and, miracle of miracles, home. Now ladies, admit it, you’ve heard of this too  .
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
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getting to first base with your girlfriend as a teenager, and wishing for “ heaven by the dashboard light” by getting to second, third and, miracle of miracles, home.Ah, yes, the gutter widens to admit yet another entrant. 
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Joined: Apr 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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In reply to:
I'm trying to think of some off the top of my head and have to admit I'm stumped.
Hmmm. It is a bit of a sticky wicket.
Bingley
Bingley
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Just been browsing the board and hit upon this basbeball thread. And since baseball season just opened two days ago (and since I'm hooked on the sport like a drug no matter how much they denigrate the fans with their greed...in short, I'm a baseball nut! No excuses!), I thought I'd offer a few phrases off the top of my head after reading through the thread...and I'm sure I'll be back with more!
An expression you hear often when somebody makes a mistake is..."and the big 'E' lights up on the scoreboard!"
The "E," of course, meaning 'error' in basball parlance.
One obvious term overlooked is "throwing a curve" used in a variety of ways. For instance, if you're cautioning someone about about a certain party's nefarious business practices you might say, "Watch out, or he'll throw you a curve." Also, if you're pleading fairness, or kidding a friend about giving you a hard time, you might say "don't throw me any curves" or "don't start throwing curves at me, now." But this expression is used in common parlance
in a frequent enough variety of ways that we've all heard or used it in one form or another, so I won't try to list all the contingencies here.
"Say it ain't so, Joe!" A catchphrase attached to the name of anyone we hold in esteem who suddenly disappoints us with untoward activity. First popularized, of course, when baseball great (and some people argue the game's greatest hitter ever), Shoeless Joe Jackson, was implicated in the Blacksox Scandal of 1919 when his team, the
Chicago White Sox, threw the series in a gambling fix. He was never convicted, but nevertheless banished from the game for life by baseball commissioner Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis, a great career never realized. And all the young boys of the day who looked up to him in Chicago and elsewhere started tossing that phrase at him
when they met, the papers picked on it and made it a headline, and the rest is linguistic history. Even when Pete Rose was busted for gambling in '89 the papers bellowed "Say It Ain't So, Pete!"
"Otherwise you're just swinging at air!" Another expression for spending your energies in the wrong places, missing the mark, etc., derived, of course, from the batter taking a swing at a bad pitch, missing it by a mile, and coming up embarrassingly empty. Or, "you're swinging at the air!"--various forms
"Headin' for home!" When one is closing in on an eagerly sought goal or finishing an important task. Or, as formerly pointed out, the long-hoped-for goal of adolescent boys' lecherly petting (the sweet dream, as it were!--sorry ladies...but we were all there, once, in those days of, uh, innocence!) Derived, of course, from the all-important goal of rounding third-base and heading down the base-path to home plate to score the all-important run.
Well, that's it for now...(or 'enough' I should say) Ah, baseball!...It brings the loquaciousness out in me! I'm sure I'll be back with more, and to peek at any responses...if anybody's still hitting this thread by then.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
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"..."Linda Ronstadt" for a good fastball."
Ronstadt is also used in basketball to refer to an offensive player's drive past a defender. And for the same reason. Love that song!*
* for non-Ronstadt fans: Blue Bayou
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Welcome, Whitman, and thank you for bringing this topic back up at a most appropriate time! I am also a baseball nut [ hi Faldage ] Yogi Berra in a Zen moment: "When you see a fork in the road, take it." 
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veteran
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veteran
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As soon as I saw this thread, I knew someone would get in cricket terms, and lo and behold, Rhuby rose to the bait. Well, that's OK by me, since cricket has more wierd expressions then baseball. After all, we have nothing to compare with the likes of "silly mid-on, googly," etc. So Shanks, Rhuby, Max, and the rest of you chaps, let us poor benighted USrs have it.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Hi Bingley! Thought I just stop by and touch base with you.
For non baseball fans, runners must touch the base as they go round the circuit or they are out.
You can "touch base" with someone, thereby keeping in touch in a casual way.
You can also say "I touched all the bases" meaning you crossed all the "t"s and dotted all the "i"s or thoroughly completed a job.
And if you are going to a required gathering and plan to spend just a few moments then you can "touch base" and leave.
Anyone want to take on "Batter up!" & "Your outta' here!"& "in the bullpen" now that you're warmed up?
wow
The Boston RED SOX rule
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Well, there's "play hard ball" meaning to be tough or even ruthless, or at least serious. I always took this to be from baseball, where the ball is hard, as opposed to softball, where it is, uh, soft, and thus not nearly as dangerous.
In medicine, when we're on call at the hospital for new admissions (as I am tonight, lucky me), if we should be so fortunate as not to have a single admission all night, then the next day we can boast to our coworkers that we had a "no hitter." We've already had two admissions tonight, so alas, it won't be a no hitter.
In Little League we used to tease guys who struck out by calling them "Special K," after the cereal and the fact that a strikeout is recorded in the scorebook as a "K."
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Well, since Sparteye brought up in-sport slang...when a batter gets under the ball too much on a high fly giving it so much loft that it's easily caught, they say "your killin' too many birds." However, we didn't know how literal
this saying was until Randy Johnson recently disintegrated that dove with a fastball, did we? (Actually what he throws is more like a 'cannon shot!')
And just another note about "Say it ain't so..." When Pete Rose was busted you heard "Say it ain't so, Rose!" more often than "Pete." The latter is just more poetic, I guess (love that assonance!).
And, "wow"............................................................................................................................................................. for posting that last remark in blazing red I have just 2 things to say to you...Bill Buckner 'n' Bucky Dent!.............. (It's the "Curse of the Buck!"--I guess Buck Showalter will never manage in Boston!)...Sorry, you asked for it. (all in fun, of course!)
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