flogged like a rented mule

[Alice Faber]

GEORGE THOMPSON wrote:
>        Several years ago I heard John Sterling, the lead voice on
>the NY Yankees radio broadcasts, use the expression "to beat like a
>rented mule".  I don't remember the statement precisely, though I'm
>sure it was "beat", not "flog"; nor the context, except that it
>referred to sports, presumably baseball.
>

It's an expression I hear regularly on sports highlight shows
(SportsCenter and the like), usually in reference to hockey. The
canonical trope is "X team beat Y (opponent's goalie) like a rented
mule", typically when said goalie lets in a few shots he should have
stopped.

Alice
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Alice Faber                                             faber at haskins.yale.edu
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