"B-Team"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Essentially what you describe.  This appears to be from 1910:


http://books.google.com/books?id=R_sIAQAAIAAJ&q=%22the+A-team%22&dq=%22the+A-team%22&lr=&as_drrb_is=b&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=1910&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=1940&num=20&as_brr=0&pgis=1

JL
On Tue, Jun 23, 2009 at 8:46 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "B-Team"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 7:19 PM -0400 6/23/09, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >OED has "A-team"  1964, restricted to "U.S. Special Forces."  It doesn't
> >have "B-team."  Both these cites refer to the British Army in World War I:
> >
> >1921  David Ferguson _The History of the Canterbury Regiment, N.Z.E.F._
>  109
> >: Before the relief, the "B" team from the 1st Battalion was sent back to
> >camp. _Ibid._ 218: The only experienced officers and other ranks who took
> >part in the attack were those who had been in the "B" team at
> Passchendaele.
> >
> >1931 W. V. Tilsley _Other Ranks_ (London: Cobden-Sanderson) 3: Luckily I
> was
> >on the B Team and so missed it. _Ibid._ 29: The B Team...stayed in
> reserve.
> >_Ibid._ 34: The B Team - a skeleton of officers and other ranks on which a
> >new battalion could be formed if the existing one suffered extinction -
> had
> >been picked.
> >
> >Oddly, neither Ferguson nor Tilsley seem to use "A-team."
> >
> >Both "A-team" and "B-team" seem to have originated in sports prior to
> 1915.
> >
> >JL
> >
> I don't know for how long they've been doing it, but the terms have
> long been used in baseball for split squad games in spring training.
> Which sports usage prior to 1915 do you have, Jon?
>
> LH
>
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