"Tom Brown" as an 1896 baseball term

[Alice Faber]

Cohen, Gerald Leonard wrote:
> Thanks for the suggestion. But what went on in _Tom Brown's Schooldays_ that would be relevant to an unsuccessfully batted ball?
>
> Gerald Cohen
>
>
>>----------
>>From:         American Dialect Society on behalf of Laurence Horn
>>Sent:         Thursday, June 23, 2005 3:20 PM
>>To:   ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>Subject:           Re: "Tom Brown" as an 1896 baseball term
>>
>
>         <snip>
>
>>Could there be an allusion here to the Tom Brown of _Tom Brown's Schooldays_, despite the Victorian England provenance of that book, which would certainly have been well known in the U.S. as well as Britain at that time?  Just a thought.
>>
>>Larry
>>
>>

A weak comebacker, as something a kid might hit (rather than a highly
trained professional athlete)?

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Alice Faber                                    faber at haskins.yale.edu
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