Golden Sombrero (baseball slang)

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

 INSIDE BASEBALL: A One-Note Horn; TIM KURKJIAN
Sports Illustrated   07-29-1991 Page: 56

A One-Note Horn
On July 17, Oriole designated hitter Sam Horn became the first
nonpitcher in major league history to strike out six straight times
in one game. In the 15- inning game against the Royals, Horn whiffed
on six straight at bats before doubling. He matched the one-game
consecutive strikeout record set by Carl Weilman, a pitcher for the
St. Louis Browns, in 1913. ''Three strikeouts is a hat trick, four is
a sombrero, five is a golden sombrero, and six is now called a
Horn,'' said Baltimore pitcher Mike Flanagan. ''Seven would have been
a Horn a Plenty. When you make history, you've got to put your name
on it.''

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society
> [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Benjamin Zimmer
> Sent: Sunday, July 23, 2006 11:52 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: Golden Sombrero (baseball slang)
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Golden Sombrero (baseball slang)
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> -----------------
>
> On 7/23/06, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> > >On 7/23/06, Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
> > >>Dickson's got it from 1989 (Don Baylor), but Factiva and
> > >>Newspaperarchive push it back to 1987 (Pete Rose).
> > >>
> > >>-----
> > >>Associated Press, June 16, 1987
> > >>"We had two guys who got the 'Golden Sombrero' tonight. You know
> > >>what the Golden Sombrero is don't you? It's the hat trick
> plus one. Our No.
> > >>1 and No. 8 hitters struck out four times each." -- Cincinnati
> > >>Manager Pete Rose. Houston's Mike Scott struck out 14
> Reds, leading
> > >>Houston to a 4-0 victory Monday.
> > >>-----
> >
> > These days, with strikeout totals up across the board for
> hitters, the
> > really impressive feat is the platinum sombrero (five times in a
> > game).  Checking on google, I find that there's even a term
> (one I've
> > never actually heard, since it doesn't come up too often for obvious
> > reasons) for striking out six times in a game, generally requiring
> > extra innings to achieve.  The etymology of the original is
> evidently
> > from a hat trick (presumably an ironic transfer from the
> positive use
> > we've discussed here relating to scoring in hockey and
> other sports)
> > only with a larger hat.
>
> As indeed Mr. Rose suggests ("the hat trick plus one").
>
> Speaking of positive and negative terms for numerical
> sporting feats, bowling has "turkey" for three consecutive
> strikes and "(turkey) buzzard" for three consecutive splits.
> I see "turkey" was discussed here briefly back in 2003.
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>
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