play pepper

[George Thompson]

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.

I'm interested by this in that it parallels the 8 or 12 passages from the Bulletin of that year which use the word novelty-word "jazz" to the same effect.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.  Working on a new edition, though.

----- Original Message -----
From: victor steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>
Date: Wednesday, April 13, 2011 8:28 pm
Subject: Re: play pepper
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU

***
>
> 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.
>
***
>
> 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
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org