Definition of earlier baseball term "shoot" (pt. 3)

[Gerald Cohen]

>From: "Peter Morris" <moxbib at voyager.net>
>To: "Gerald Cohen" <gcohen at umr.edu>
>Cc: <xerxes7 at gateway.net>, <bubba at XTALWIND.NET>
>Subject: RE: Definition of earlier baseball term "shoot" (pt. 2)
>Date: Sun, 28 Oct 2001
>
>My notes support Bob Schaefer's conclusion that the term exclusively and
>specifically meant a curve ball during the nineteenth century.  The
>citations provided by Gerald Cohen (and others I have come across) suggest
>that the term assumed an additional meaning sometime early in the twentieth
>century.  I would conjecture that this was because "shoot" started to refer
>to throws made by players other than the pitcher.
>
>Peter Morris

    But in my _Studies in Slang_, vol. 2 (1989), p.73, I present
several examples of "shoots" which are not curves. The quotes are
from _The World_ (NYC newspaper):

1) Oct. 20, 1889, p.1, col. 7: "Ed Crane, fat and jolly, went into
the pitcher's box for New York... Ed shot them in with terrific speed
and brought joy to the New Yorkers, who saw the Grooms [i.e.,
Brooklyn Bridegrooms] succumb, one after another, to his invincible
'curves' and 'shoots'."

2) Oct. 20, 1889, p.2, col. 2: "Collins [the batter] saved his [own]
life by jumping out of the way of Crane's [NY pitcher] erratic
shoots."

3) July 3, 1890, p.7, col. 1: "In the meantime the Cleveland pitcher
had begun to feed the hungry Sutcliffe with fricasseed shoots and
fried curves, which the New Yorks tried in vain to fork out of the
fathomless air as they flitter by."

4) July 20, 1890, p.9, col. 2; re the pitcher: "He was prepared to
serve to the New York batsmen a choice selection of curves, shoots,
and drops."

---Gerald Cohen