The Big Dance

[Laurence Horn]

>"The Big Dance" is used several times in the movie _Bull Durham_.
>
>beth simon
For 'the major leagues' or the world series?  I think the former is usually
"the show", although I can't remember what was used in Bull Durham.  The
NCAA tournament in men's (and I assume women's) basketball is also "the
(big) dance", but that may be later than the other cited uses.

Larry

>
>GEORGE THOMPSON wrote:
>
>> This Sunday's Daily News printed a letter from Jav Merced, one of the
>> Plain People of New York whose letters enliven that paper.  He
>> predicts "The Yankees should be able to make it to the Big Dance and
>> win it."  This refers to the World Series.  Later that day, I heard
>> D. Wayne Lucas, the trainer of race horses, say, in a television
>> interview during a broadcast of the featured races at Belmont, that
>> if his horse ran commendably he would send her to the Big Dance,
>> referring to the Breeders' Cup races this November at a track in
>> Louisiana.
>>
>> This is a term I do not remember encountering before.  Are the
>> horsemen borrowing it from baseball, or is baseball borrowing it from
>> racing?
>>
>> GAT