"He lost his dog" (baseball usage)

[George Thompson]

Gerald Cohen submits a report of a basebasll game that includes the
following passage: "Along about the third inning, after Cy Parkin had
manifested a desire to walk a lot of people, Howard Gregory was rushed
to the rescue.  From the moment that Howard started the flutter of
Angles wings was heard and the sound continued until the gong in the
press box interrupted with nine metallic strokes. When Gregory was [sic;
should be 'gave'] up the ghost, Dolly was every bit as bad as "Gray" and
a little worse.  He lost his dog right off the reel [=right from the
start]. . . ."  His first question is the sense of the phrase "lost his
dog", which I have no notion about.  His secondary questions concerns
the words "Dolly was every bit as bad as "Gray" and a little worse".
Larry Horn suggests that "gray" was Gregory's nickname.  Instead,
probably "Dolly" was Gray's nickname.  There was a pitcher active at
that time named William "Dolly" Gray.  (There had been a popular song
from the Boer War called "Goodbye Dolly Gray" and no doubt for a while
"Dolly" was the standard nickname of men named Gray."  He had been with
the Senators from 1909 to 1911.  He seems to have been exceptionally
inept, given to walking batters.  Gregory relieved Parkins, and screwed
up; Gray relieved Gregory and did worse.  Dolly was "as bad as "Gray""
because of negative color imagery: he was as bad as the word "gray"
implies.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African
Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998.

----- Original Message -----
From: Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
Date: Thursday, April 5, 2001 7:17 am
Subject: Re: "He lost his dog" (baseball usage)

> At 3:15 PM -0500 4/5/01, Gerald Cohen wrote:
> >    I've come across an odd expression used in a baseball
> context: "He
> >lost his dog." The general meaning seems to be: (of a pitcher) proved
> >to be ineffective, lost control of the situation.  Origin: ?
> >
> >    It appears in the newspaper _San Francisco Bulletin_, May 26,
> >1913, p.12/2-3; article title:" May 25 to Be Known as Longest Day of
> >Baseball" col. 2 "Ever hear of a ball game that bored you? No? Well
> >such an exhibition was staged at the local part yesterday.
> >the Angels kicking him for the remaining tallies that went to
> make up
> >their grand total of 22." --[The game was between the Los Angeles
> >Angels and the Oakland Oaks].
> >
> >      Would anyone have any insight at all on this baseball usage "He
> >lost his dog"? Also I'm not sure what Dolly and Gray refer to,
> >although I have the feeling I may be missing something obvious.
> >
> From the context, it appears to me reasonably certain that Gray is
> Howard Gregory's nickname (whence the quotes) and Dolly the pitcher
> who relieved him.  Thus however ineffective the wild Parkin was, and
> whatever little relief "Gray" Gregory provided, giving up nine hits,
> Dolly was even worse, although we don't know how many of the final
> total of 22 Angel runs were charged to each.  In modern parlance,
> both Gregory and Dolly would be described as firemen who poured
> gasoline on the fire.  I like the presupposition in the opening
> rhetorical query that baseball games are never boring.
>
> larry
>