play pepper

Thu Apr 14 00:27:01 UTC 2011

[Final post that I promised earlier. Please note that several comments
have appeared since I initially started working on this post. I
decided not to change the first third of the post as it does not
really contradict anything else that's been posted. Also, the
newspaper citations at the end are certainly not exhaustive--it
appears some newspapers used references to players' "pepper" quite
frequently, while others made no such references at all.]

Since the commentators were admiring Gonzales's offensive prowess, I
presume that the comment indeed was intended to suggest that he would
hit a lot of doubles off the wall. I doubt he meant anything in
relation to home runs, since those usually don't bounce back.

Now, OED does have the respective entry, although only one of the
quotations mentions playing ball--the rest are pepper game(s) and
pepper drill.

> 7. Baseball. A training exercise or warm-up in which a batter hits a ball pitched at close range by one of a number of other players, one of whom fields the ball and quickly pitches again to the batter. Orig. and chiefly attrib., esp. in pepper game.

Note that this comment--and, I am sure, most others (including
WIki)--associate the game/drill only with baseball. This is so much so
that the drill is enshrined in the official MLB Baseball Lingo (no, I
am not kidding-- http://goo.gl/dMNcI ). Still even the first page of
hits for "play pepper with" search has a few linking the drill to
volleyball. So far, I have not noticed any other sports associated
with it, but this is already broader than the "original". I should
also note that the OED quotations start from 1914.

A few interesting pickups /after/ 1914.

http://goo.gl/19DdI
LIFE. Vol. 36, No. 13
Mar 29, 1954
Teasing Willie. p. 83
>  Giants' outfielder laughs last at teammates in pepper game. "Pepper" in baseball is a pregame limbering-up exercise in which a batter hits balls to a group of fielders

http://goo.gl/bck3M
Baseball Digest. Vol. 54, No. 11
Nov 1995
Think you know baseball? p. 54
> Every movement you make in a pepper game, you will use during a game

Just Play Ball. By Joe Garagiola. 2009
p. 159
> The Gas House Gang had a version of the pepper game that rivaled anything the Harlem Globetrotters did with a basketball.

http://goo.gl/Rd7AG
The Game from Where I Stand: A Ballplayer's Inside View. Doug Glanville. 2010
p. 28
>  Despite our reputation for “spit first, ask questions later,” this pepper game of personality spiced our pregame stretching.

But I want to return to 1914. Is the "pepper game" related to a
"display of pepper"? Looking around the 1900-1915 citations that
involve pepper and baseball, virtually all refer to "pepper" as an
essential ingredient to a good baseball game, an intractable,
aggressive quality that makes teams--and each player--win.

Consider the next three citations.

http://goo.gl/exVTg
Outing Magazine. Volume 62:2. May 1913
Building a Winning Baseball Team. By Clarke C. Griffith. p. 133
> "Why then did you keep Schaefer?" some keen fan may ask. Schaeter was kept because he is one of the best coachers in baseball. He's pretty old, but he's our pepper-box. I wanted him to put spice into the youngsters. That's all I keep him for now. He's the best pepper man in baseball, a big asset to any team.

http://goo.gl/tCjBk
The American Magazine. Volume 76:2. August 1913
The Making of a Big Leaguer: The Story of One of the Great Ball
Players of the Country as Told by Himself to Hugh S. Fullerton. p.
40/1
> Some of the writers watching me in the spring accuse me of loafing and of having lost my "pepper."

http://goo.gl/DWcsp
How to play baseball: a manual for boys. By John Joseph McGraw. 1914
p. 14
> A catcher must have plenty of pepper because he is expected to keep the rest of the club on its toes and encourage the other players.
p. 139
> Keep after the players all the time. Encourage them and insist that they keep constantly on their toes. Make them show plenty of pepper and spirit and aggression. This carries a long way. Never let the other side see you are beaten or are losing courage.
p. 141
>  If a runner is retired at first and there are no others on the bases, pass the ball around the infield with a display of pepper that would look like a show of confidence on a moving-picture film. It impresses the other team, and, besides, keeps the infielders, who may have been idle for some time, livened up and warmed to their work. But always be careful not to throw the ball around if there is a man on base, when a wild heave would be detrimental to your club.

A similar citation shows up under pepper II. 4.b.:

> 1913    Bulletin (San Francisco) 19 Mar. 17/2   Del Howard has put a lot of life and pepper into the Seal herd,‥with some additional help behind the bat and in the box.

[ It is surrounded by two citations that I suspect belong elsewhere
and a bunch of others that make use of the phrase "full of pepper",
which is not exactly the same as the one in baseball context.

The one preceding it seems to imply that an animal would be "peppered"
with shot:

> 1869    Routledge's Every Boy's Ann. 468   By loading it with slugs‥he should be able to give the ‘varmint’ pepper.

The one following belongs under 4.c. ("rough treatment"):

> 1966    C. Achebe Man of People vii. 81   If you insult me again I will show you pepper. ]

But there is a significant difference between the phrase "full of
pepper"--which displays something similar to "having spunk",
enthusiasm or anger, temper--and the baseball use that is closer to
"display of skills" and aggressiveness--which is not to say that the
two are not related. Ty Cobb used the phrase twice in his book and at
least one was clearly unrelated to baseball skills.

http://goo.gl/YCVV5
Busting 'em: and other big league stories. By Ty Cobb. 1914
p. 26
> The crowd makes the ball game. How much pepper, how much enthusiasm, and how much baseball do you suppose a player would show if games were played to empty seats?
p. 275
> A newspaper friend of mine came to Augusta last fall to pay me a visit and to do a little hunting with me. He had been accustomed to the Big Town and was used to having lunch. The first day that I told him I hoped he did not count on lunch, because none was served in my house, he looked kind of downcast, and I took him downtown to a restaurant, where he tackled enough food to do me for a dinner. It was not three or four days, though, before he had become used to only two meals, and he developed twice as much pepper on the diet as he had displayed when he first arrived. ... As a matter of fact, I don't see how any man, who is confined to an office for eight or nine hours each day, and who gets very little exercise, can expect to eat three meals and show any pepper.

Here's another, with full context.

http://goo.gl/CdL6R
The big league. By Charles Emmett Van Loan. 1911
p. 108
> After they had signed the man, their first step was carefully to eradicate from his mind any lingering suspicion that he knew how baseball should be played. His first duty was to play baseball as the Gamecocks played it, tricky, intricate, and up to the very last tick of the watch.
> They drilled signals into his head; they hammered their brand of baseball into him on the field and off, and even on the trains, when traveling around the circuit, they plotted new plays. Many a baseball trick of the present day was born in the smoking room of a Pullman when the Gamecocks were on the wing, and first saw the light when those resourceful young men had need of something absolutely new with which to annoy the opposition.
> Into this remarkable coalition of brains, pepper, and vinegar, came young Joe Corbin, a quiet, studious youth, addicted to a jump ball and a strict observance of his religious faith.

And a few more, from the same general period.

http://goo.gl/MxdfW
Michigansean. A Yearbook for 1909
> After a year's absence, Lew McAllister was re-engaged to coach the varsity, and his return was marked by the most remarkable display of "life" and "pepper" ever evident in a Michigan baseball aggregation.

http://goo.gl/re9k1
San Joaquin Light and Power Magazine. Volume 1:4. April 1913
News Around the Loop. p. 168/2
> Porter Simpson and Carl Stockholm will show pepper all right when it comes to carrying a baseball bat instead of the mail.

http://goo.gl/3Urnl
The Manhattan Quarterly. Volume 9. 1913
[Snippet only. Issue and exact page unknown]. p. 362
> Last year he was the pepper of the Newark infield, playing one of the best games in his career at the third base position.

I also came across several pieces that show meaning not directly
covered under OED's II. 4.b.

>  b. In other allusive and proverbial contexts, chiefly with reference to the biting, pungent, inflaming, or stimulating qualities of pepper.

The items I found included "pepper-mad" (http://goo.gl/YhbVg ), "they
called him Pepper on account of his temper" (http://goo.gl/OJp1A ). I
suppose, one could say these fall under "inflaming". Also note the
comment above about the two extraneous citations under 4.b. The
"anger" meaning (both to be angry and to make angry) are covered under
pepper v., as is "to spray with small missiles", such as shot.
Pepper-box is occasionally used in the same sense as "powder-box",
meaning explosive, intemperate, but it's also a small target in some
games (notably the Eton game--likely because of the relatively small
size of the hole into which the ball is to be dropped) and is part of
the 1890s tennis terminology (in this case, likely related to being
"peppered" with tennis balls).

I initially thought that the "pepper game" might be related to the
"missile" meaning--that is, the balls are being peppered, sprayed
among the players. I found no evidence to confirm this initial
assumption. But looking carefully at the timing of the early use in
baseball, I now suspect that the "pepper game" actually developed from
the "enthusiasm" sense of pepper--and not so much from playing pepper
as a pre-game drill, which is the more contemporary meaning, as
tossing the ball around the infield /during/ the game, to show being
involved, being active, aggressive.

It's a speculation, of course, and an analysis of /newspaper/ stories
might prove otherwise, as I've developed this theory looking only at
GB, which is to say, books and magazines.

But a couple of NYTimes articles from 1914 do follow the same pattern.

http://goo.gl/pVHgh
NYT March 28, 1914
Yankee Nine Routed. p. 11
> The New Yorkers did not have much of the so-called pepper, which was no doubt due to the fact that the players were tired out from the riding, being on the sleepers since last Sunday night.

http://goo.gl/nbhx3
NYT March 24, 1914
Keating Shows Fine Form. p. 7
> It was a fine day for baseball, and one which put a great deal of "pepper" in the pitchers.

http://goo.gl/U0sqy
New York Times - Mar 6, 1914
INFIELDER FLETCHER BREAKS A FINGER. p. 9
> On the other hand the youngsters fielded cleanly and with much pepper.

WELCOME OUR CITY
Pay-Per-View - The Sun - ProQuest Archiver - May 14, 1914
Meyer is as full of "pepper" as ever and is playing a corking all-around game.

http://goo.gl/pGS1T
Pittsburgh Press. Aug 4, 1914
Pirates and Braves Open a Four-Game Series in Boston. p. 24/1[Press
Sporting Edition]
> It sometimes takes a little break in luck to put some confidence back into a player after he has been going badly. The hit of Koney's yesterday was a game winner and may restore the old pepper to the famous baseman.

About the only exception I found was here. (And a few pay-per-view
cites where preview text was insufficient.)

http://goo.gl/JYdfU
Pittsburgh Gazette Times. Apr 15, 1914
Brooklyn Shuts Out Rebs In Opening Game. p. 10/2
> The local club spilled plenty of pepper. They fought for every point.

But even here, the reference is to a sort of "pepper content",
something that implies a player may be "full of pepper" for the game.
In this sense, was the "pepper game" so called because it
gave/increased/restore pepper to players before the game?

VS-)

On Sun, Apr 10, 2011 at 11:32 PM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Pepper is normally a drill where a batter hits ground balls at fielders, who
> catch and throw the ball quickly back to the batter, who hits another ground
> ball, etc.
>
> I don't know how you play pepper with a wall -- perhaps you throw the ball
> against the wall and field it, and throw and field, etc.
>
> DanG

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