"B-Team"

[George Thompson]

> >Both "A-team" and "B-team" seem to have originated in sports prior to
> 1915.
> >
> >JL
> >
> I don't know for how long they've been doing it, but the terms have
> long been used in baseball for split squad games in spring training.
> Which sports usage prior to 1915 do you have, Jon?
>
> LH
>

from the mid-19th C, baseball clubs recognized a team made up of their good players, and a team made up of their "muffin" players.  The better team was sometimes referred to as the "senior" team and sometimes as the "first" team.
Base Ball. – A match took place on Saturday afternoon between the 1st nine of the Hiawatha Club and the 2nd nine of the Osceola.  The playing was poor on both sides, though the second nine of the Osceola came off victorious.  They are by far the best players.  Brooklyn Daily Eagle, July 19, 1858, p. 3

I don't have a reference to these teams being designated "A" and "B", but at least the distinction is old, and likely pre-existed baseball, in cricket.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.

----- Original Message -----
From: Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
Date: Tuesday, June 23, 2009 8:48 pm
Subject: Re: "B-Team"
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU

> At 7:19 PM -0400 6/23/09, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >OED has "A-team"  1964, restricted to "U.S. Special Forces."  It doesn't
> >have "B-team."  Both these cites refer to the British Army in World
> War I:
> >
> >1921  David Ferguson _The History of the Canterbury Regiment,
> N.Z.E.F._  109
> >: Before the relief, the "B" team from the 1st Battalion was sent
> back to
> >camp. _Ibid._ 218: The only experienced officers and other ranks who
> took
> >part in the attack were those who had been in the "B" team at Passchendaele.
> >
> >1931 W. V. Tilsley _Other Ranks_ (London: Cobden-Sanderson) 3:
> Luckily I was
> >on the B Team and so missed it. _Ibid._ 29: The B Team...stayed in reserve.
> >_Ibid._ 34: The B Team - a skeleton of officers and other ranks on
> which a
> >new battalion could be formed if the existing one suffered extinction
> - had
> >been picked.
> >
> >Oddly, neither Ferguson nor Tilsley seem to use "A-team."
> >
> >Both "A-team" and "B-team" seem to have originated in sports prior to
> 1915.
> >
> >JL
> >
> I don't know for how long they've been doing it, but the terms have
> long been used in baseball for split squad games in spring training.
> Which sports usage prior to 1915 do you have, Jon?
>
> LH
>
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