play pepper

Sat Apr 16 16:07:52 UTC 2011

There is pepper, the practice game, and there is pepper, a behavior on the
field.

I was in Europe when Ken Burns' Baseball documentary series came out, so I
am watching it now for the first time. There is a clip of a first base coach
dancing for joy while a hit goes through past the second baseman to score a
run. That's pepper. So is yelling "no batter, no batter, no batter".

DanG

On Wed, Apr 13, 2011 at 8:27 PM, victor steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       victor steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: play pepper
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> [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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