"Hit 'em where they ain't" (1901)

[Wilson Gray]

On 5/11/05, Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at rci.rutgers.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU>
> Subject:      "Hit 'em where they ain't" (1901)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The origins of one of the most famous quotes in baseball...
>
> -----
> http://eagle.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/Repository/BEG/1901/07/29/002-BEG-1901-07-29-01-SINGLE.PDF#OLV0_Entity_0369
> _Brooklyn Eagle_, July 29, 1901, p. 11, col. 3
> Willie Keeler is always prepared for anything that comes along. Yesterday
> a Philadelphia fan approached him and inquired what was the principal
> attribute of a successful batter.

Do what?

(a) "...inquired what was the principal attribute of a successful batter."

and not

(b) "...inquired what the principal attribute of a successful batter was"?!

What's up with this? Isn't (b) the "correct" word order? Hasn't no
less a light than William Labov stated that the (a) form is peculiar
to the currently so-called "AAVE"? Or am I simply terribly, terribly
confused? Naturally, I've seen and heard the (a) word order here,
there, and everywhere, here of late. But that can be accounted for by
ordinary language change since Labov made his statement. But, if Labov
is or was correct about (a), why is it found in a white newspaper
published before he was born? Did the (a) type die out among white
speakers, only to be resurrected by black influence as a result of
creeping desegregation? Or is my memory simply fubar?

-Wilson Gray


> "Well, you see," said Willie, "there are seven fielders in front of you,
> all of them placed so that they are in a position to pounce upon all kinds
> of drives, liners, or grounders. The principal thing to do is to hit 'em
> where they ain't."
> Which, in plain English, means that the successful batter hits the ball
> where the fielders cannot reach it.
> -----
> http://eagle.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/Repository/BEG/1901/08/27/002-BEG-1901-08-27-01-SINGLE.PDF#OLV0_Entity_0388
> _Brooklyn Eagle_, Aug. 27, 1901, p. 12, col. 3
> The Eagle recently had an interesting story in its base ball columns
> describing an interview its reporter had with that champion of scientific
> batsmen, Willie Keeler, of the champion Brooklyn team, in which William
> told of a letter he had received, among a lot of others, asking him if he
> had written a treatise on batting, and if he had to let the applicant know
> where to get a copy.
> In reading the letter in question to the reporter, Willie said: "I have
> already written a treatise, and it reads like this: 'Keep your eye clear,
> and hit 'em where they ain't; that's all." [etc.]
> [Letter to the Editor from Henry Chadwick, "Chadwick Elaborates on Willie
> Keeler's Treatise on Batting."]
> -----
>
> Chadwick's elaboration about the "treatise" was repeated in a _Washington
> Post_ article on Jan 29, 1905 (p. III5, col. 1, "Willie Keeler, The Ideal
> Player").  The embellished version also appears on the Baseball Almanac
> website (citing _Baseball's Greatest Quotations_ by Paul Dickson):
>
> http://www.baseball-almanac.com/quotes/quokeel.shtml
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>


--
-Wilson Gray