in his wheelhouse

[Gerald Cohen]

    This is getting interesting. Alice Faber points out that the NY
Giants moved to San Francisco in 1958 or 1959. This would explain why
the manager of the San Francisco Giants, Bill Rigney, was not earlier
quoted in the S.F. newspaper using the expression.

    However, the absence of the major league team from San Francisco
did not preclude lively newspaper articles on baseball. The Pacific
Coast League (1903-1988) was still very much in existence, and
sportswriters being who they are, I suppose they covered the games
with considerable interest. (They certainly did so in 1913, the year
I'm presently concentrating on.)

    So we're back to Bill Rigney. Maybe Don Sparlin is correct after
all in supposing that whoever introduced "in his wheelhouse" to
baseball lingo was from a river town like St. Louis or Cincinnati. I
think it's time for me to check with SABR (Society for American
Baseball Research) and see what Bill Rigney's background is.

---Gerald Cohen

>Date:         Mon, 11 Jun 2001
>From: Alice Faber <faber at HASKINS.YALE.EDU>
>Subject:      Re: in his wheelhouse
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
>Gerald Cohen said:
>>      The point is that if baseball "wheelhouse" had more than minimal
>>currency prior to 1959, that currency would have been reflected in
>>the sports pages of the San Francisco newspapers. And if it appeared
>>there, it would have turned up in Tamony's Collection. And prior to
>>1959 it's not there.
>
>Which was the first Giants season in San Francisco, 1958 or 1959? Without
>checking, I believe it was 1959, in which case there would have been much
>less coverage of Major League Baseball in San Francisco newspapers prior to
>1959.
>--
>Alice Faber                                       tel. (203) 865-6163
>Haskins Laboratories                              fax  (203) 865-8963
>270 Crown St                                   faber at haskins.yale.edu
>New Haven, CT 06511                               afaber at wesleyan.edu