And in (additional) honor of the Giants' World Series win...

Wed Nov 3 22:23:16 UTC 2010

Forgot to mention that I find no evidence that TAD even knew this term, much
less invented it.

My first idea was that it may have had something to do with the "Po Lo"
Grounds, but the 1927 ex. makes that doubtful. Now I suspect it may be from
"Wun Hi Fly."

Or neither.

JL

On Wed, Nov 3, 2010 at 6:12 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: And in (additional) honor of the Giants' World Series
> win...
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> HDAS (compiled in the horse-and-buggy days before cyberdatabases) has cites
> back to the '30s but no convincing explanatory etymology. Though Larry's
> sense of a weakly hit or lucky homer is dominant, the phrase has
> been variously interpreted.
>
> JL
>
> On Wed, Nov 3, 2010 at 5:15 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com
> >wrote:
>
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> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: And in (additional) honor of the Giants' World Series
> > win...
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > 1927 _Charleroi [Pa.] Mail_ (June 23) 7: The Phillies went into a
> deadlock
> > on Cy's Chinese homer only to see the Buccos hammer over four runs a
> little
> > later.
> >
> > 1943 _Burlington [N.C.] Daily Times-News_  (Sept. 10) 8: No fewer than
> > 21[?]
> > National League players hit their first home runs at the Polo
> > Grounds...That's why they call them Chinese home runs...The Giants can't
> > win
> > even in a Chinese park.  [Suspension points in original.]
> >
> > 1948 _Lowell [Mass.] Sun_ (Oct. 2) 5: Ballplayers played ball in those
> > days.
> > Now they pop a Chinese home run into an overhanging balcony and the crowd
> > thinks it's wonderful.
> >
> > 1951 _Altoona Mirror_ (Oct. 6) 1: As the scene shifted from the massive
> > Yankee stadium to the Polo grounds - scene of the "Chinese" home run,
> [sic]
> > the fans seemed to be only warming up to what  so far has been the most
> > anti-climatic [sic] world series [sic] ever played.
> >
> > JL
> >
> > On Wed, Nov 3, 2010 at 4:47 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu
> > >wrote:
> >
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> > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> > > Subject:      And in (additional) honor of the Giants' World Series
> > win...
> > >
> > >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > > The last time the Giants won the Series it was 1954, when they were
> > > playing in the Polo Grounds a few blocks from where I lived in upper
> > > Manhattan.  Notwithstanding this proximity, I was--as a rabid fan of
> > > the  Brooklyn Dodgers--not pleased with the Giants' success and was
> > > rooting in vain for the Cleveland Indians in that Series.  The
> > > turning point of that Series may well have been the game-saving catch
> > > in Game 1 of the deep drive by the Indians' Vic Wertz by Willie Mays,
> > > possibly the most celebrated defensive play in the history of
> > > baseball.  But what I remember equally well is the game-winning
> > > pinch-hit home run hit by Dusty Rhodes in the 10th inning of the game
> > > Game 1 following the famous catch (a.k.a. "The Catch")
> > >
> > > Curiously to me, the only listing for "Chinese home run" in
> > > Urbandictionary is the following, which I'm totally unfamiliar with:
> > >
> > > When a batter fouls a ball back behind the screen or net into the
> stands.
> > > "Johnson remains at the plate after hitting a Chinese Home Run on a 2-2
> > > count."
> > >
> > > Other web entries do provide the relevant sense, and indeed Dickson's
> > > "New Baseball Dictionary" (p. 114) not only includes this sense but
> > > indexes this very same epochal event as the first use of the phrase,
> > > although I seem to recall (dimly, since I was 9 years old at the
> > > time) that the announcers seemed to presuppose watchers would be
> > > familiar with the term.  The reference seems either exclusive to or
> > > largely limited to use to describe home runs to the very short
> > > right-field corner, and to signal the "cheapness" of the home run,
> > > which Dickson notes was also described, probably by Cleveland fans,
> > > as "a 260-foot pop fly.  So what I was wondering if the etymology is
> > > just from the stereotype assumption of Chinese cheap labor > (Chinese
> > > = cheap) > (cheap home run = Chinese home run) or if there's some
> > > other motivation.  It's also interesting that the first use, both in
> > > Dickson and some other sites, is attributed to our friend T. A.
> > > ("TAD") Dorgan, who is of course on some of these sites still
> > > identified as the originator of "hot dog".  I'm wondering whether the
> > > attribution is more reliable in the case of "Chinese home run/homer"
> > > than in the case of the dubious dachshund.
> > >
> > > LH
> > >
> > > (P.S.  While the term is predictably no longer in use, the Dickson
> > > entry reminds me that the Chinese home run was successfully
> > > transported from the Polo Grounds to the L. A. Coliseum, where the
> > > Dodgers played in the late 1950s before their own Chavez Ravine
> > > ballpark was built; the Coliseum was, and is, a football stadium
> > > whose temporary conversion to baseball made cheap home runs possible,
> > > only to left rather than right field.  Wally Moon, a journeyman
> > > left-handed-hitting outfielder then playing for the Dodgers, made a
> > > living by poking balls into those nearby stands (the opposite field
> > > for him) that became known as "Moon Shots"--one of those lexical
> > > items that was useful for a while, and then predictably died.  The
> > > same is evidently true of "Chinese home run", but for a different
> > > reason.
> > >
> > > At 6:53 AM -0700 11/3/10, geoffrey nunberg wrote:
> > > >"He [Renteria] told Andres [Torres] he was going to hit one and he
> > > >did it," outfielder Aaron Rowand said. "He Babe Ruth-ed it, I guess."
> > > >
> > > >
> > >
> >
> http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/11/01/SP7S1G5BQ6.DTL&tsp=1#ixzz14E7MsJxI
> > > >
> > >
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