threading the needle

[Laurence Horn]

At 2:28 PM -0400 10/5/01, Bapopik at AOL.COM wrote:
>--------------------------------------------------------
>RED SMITH IN THE NYHT
>
>You Can't Win 'Em All at Home--Cronin!
>    NYHT, 19 August 1946, pg. 24, col. 3 head.
>
>The Cardinals' Howie Polett, still a semi-invalid with that torn
>muscle in his left side, but cool and cautious and monstrously
>skillful, was "threading the needle" all afternoon, as the dugout
>phrase goes.
>    NYHT, 7 October 1946, pg. 22, col. 5.

If this is going into the lexicographic record book for "thread the
needle", it should be filed under Howie POLLET.  I don't know if the
geminate metathesis is due to Barry, Red, or the Trib's typesetter.

--larry

>    (Paul Dickson's BASEBALL DICTIONARY gives no date, with only
>"_thread the needle_  To pitch with skill and precision; to keep the
>batter from hitting the ball"--ed.)
>