Spring Training (1896); Hidden Ball Trick (1896);Holy Cow! (1923);Slud (1948)
Bapopik at AOL.COM
Bapopik at AOL.COM
Wed Dec 4 11:41:25 UTC 2002
Some baseball terms, checked with WASHINGTON POST full text. Gerald Cohen
can re-post this if he wants.
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SPRING TRAINING
22 March 1896, WASHINGTON POST, pg. 8:
Why, Southern trips became a fad with major League managers in the spring
training of the Orioles in 1894. These Southern trips have been more or less
popular among clubs of the major League and the old American Association for
the past seven years.
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HIDDEN BALL TRICK
Paul Dickson has 1908.
29 April 1896, WASHINGTON POST, pg. 4:
His masterly work in the field resulted in team work for the Senators that
made the Orioles appear as a lot of the veriest amateurs, the hidden ball
trick and a rush home from third by Abbey when Pond was off his guard being
among the clever points gained.
29 June 1902, WASHINGTON POST, pg. 9:
In no previous season within the past five years has the "hidden ball
trick" been worked so frequently as this.
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BALL ORCHARD
31 March 1907, WASHINGTON POST, pg. D4:
Ball orchards are the favorite breeding places of green-eyed monsters.
(From the CHICAGO TRIBUNE--ed.)
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HOLY COW!
The RHHDAS has 1934 for "Holy cow!" It's not used in a baseball setting
here.
11 March 1923, WASHINGTON POST, pg. 92:
THE POTTERS by J. P. McENVOY
(...)
BILL: Bacon and eggs and toast and Jav'--
Gosh, it's always the same old chow!
PA: What if it is?
BILL: O, holy cow!
I'm sick of bacon and tired of eggs!
MAMIE: Give him some ficassed humming bird legs,
Or butterfly ankles...
PA: Or oyster's knees.
Too bad about you and your bacon...
MA: Please!
How many times do you have to be told?
Eat your vittles before they're cold!
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SLUD
11 February 1948, WASHINGTON POST, pg. 20:
_They're Taking Dizzy's_
_Microphone Away Again_
(...)
Now it looks again like the good people of St. Louis no longer will hear
such informative phrases as "he slud into third" and "he throwed him out at
home."
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SPIT BALL
Dickson has 1905.
1 November 1903, WASHINGTON POST, pg. TP10:
A dispatch from Chicago says: Local baseball players and incoming
professionals have one topic of conversation now, and that is the nerew ball
the California pitchers are bringing back with them. Among this lot is
"Skel" Roach, who has it down to a science. It is said that every pitcher,
big and little, is working on it, and before long there will be fifty, at
least, who will have mastered the mysterious "drop." It is called the
"spitball," from the fact that the pitcher moistens his pitching forefinger
just before delivering the ball. This act in some way takes from the ball
all the twist, which, ordinarily, gives the ball its curve near the plate.
30 August 1904, WASHINGTON POST, pg. 8:
"The high-sky pitchers with spit balls, armories in left field, gas tanks
in center field, close fences in right field, cigar box parks, and foxy
managers make it a hard place for old-timers."
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HIT FOR THE CYCLE
27 September 1933, WASHINGTON POST, pg. 18:
Jimmy Foxx, Athletic's slugger, is one of only six players in all major
league history to "hit for the cycle," that is, get a single, double, triple
and homer in four times at bat in one game.
(It's also applied to one game, regardless of four or more times at bat--ed.)
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GOPHER
Paul Dickson has 1932.
22 March 1930, WASHINGTON POST, pg. 13:
"What's a gopher ball?" queried Dick.
"It's hard to explain what it is, but I can give illustrations. Every
time I pitched it I heard the fellows on the other teams yelling, 'Go for
two! Go for three!'"
(Dick Coffman of the St. Louis Browns and "a big league pitcher"--ed.)
14 April 1931, WASHINGTON POST, pg. 17:
_"Gopher" Hurler_
_Back With Yanks_
(...)
Shortly after he (Vernon Gomex--ed.) joined the club a gag grew up about
his celebrated "gopher ball."
When he threw his "gopher ball," Gomez explained, base-line coaches of
opposing teams invariably bellowed to the batter, "Go-fer three."
The joke was quite funny, but it soon developed that it contained too
much truth. Gomez wound up the season hurling for St. Paul, in the American
Association.
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RELIEF PITCHER
Dickson has 1914.
1 July 1906, WASHINGTON POST, pg. S1:
In three consecutive games Connie Mack used Big Chief Bender as a relief
pitcher.
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FIREMAN
A relief pitcher. Dickson has 1939, citing Barry Popik.
13 August 1948, WASHINGTON POST, pg. 14:
Mace "Fireman" Brown, only other Pirate pitcher who has won ten or more
games, failed to put out the conflagration and Chicago added three more runs
in the ninth.
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GRAND SLAM
22 April 1929, WASHINGTON POST, pg. 11:
...for the same reason that the homer, since the manufacturers socialized
the grand slam is all too often wasted in defeat.
(Not a bases-loaded homer, but just a homer--ed.)
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BALTIMORE CHOP
Dickson has 1910.
20 July 1907, WASHINGTON POST, pg. 8:
In the seventh, when the almost-run occurred, Hinchman broke loose with a
single that bounded over Altizer's head. The revival of the ancient
Baltimore chop was appreciated.
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BALTIMORE FAREWELL
Dickson has 1954-1955.
6 September 1957, WASHINGTON POST, pg. D2:
The Orioles introduced something new into baseball with the famed
"Baltimore farewll." This is a particularly unsympathetic gesture to a
pitcher who has just had his ears pinned back and it's never been fully
appreciated by a visiting club. The Baltimore farewell consists of everyone
in the stands waving handkerchiefs and it's the subtlety of the thing which
leaves visiting pitchers muttering to themselves.
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SOPHOMORE JINX & GO TO TOWN
7 April 1938, WASHINGTON POST, pg. X28:
Will DiMaggio, who escaped the sophomore jinx, add playing-season
difficulties to his holdout troubles?
(...)(Pg. 29--ed.)
They have some backs that can really "go to town."
(Football running backs--ed.)
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DREAM TEAM
The "Dream Game" was held in 1934, according to Dickson.
14 December 1934, WASHINGTON POST, pg. 26:
_"Dream Team" Assembled For East; Coach Hanley Jubilant Over Material for
All-Star Fray on Coast._
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SUBWAY SERIES
4 July 1934, WASHINGTON POST, pg. 13:
NEW YORK, July 3 (AP)--Proponents of the "subway series" this fall between
the Yankees and the Giants for the world baseball championship may enjoy
something of a pre-view when the all-star teams of the National and American
League battle in gilt-edged formation next Tuesday at the Polo Grounds.
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YANKEES
Another team had the nickname before New York. Again, you'll never know
any of this from anything associated with the Yankees' 100th anniversary
celebrations this year. The below is from Lexington, Virginia.
10 May 1903, WASHINGTON POST, pg. 9:
The Lafayetts defeated the Yankees, who consisted of a few substitutes off
the Technicals, by the score of 9 to 7.
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