Heard on Springer: "in the _first_ beginning..."

[Garson O'Toole]

The Bible-baseball pun was employed before the turn of the previous century.

Cite: 1897, Proceedings of the American Pharmaceutical Association,
Minutes of the Forty-Fifth Annual Meeting, First Session, Tuesday,
August 24, 1897, Speaker: Mr Good, American Pharmaceutical
Association. (Google Books full view)

In regard to his biblical allusion, it recalls to my mind the
conundrum that the small boy gave at the breakfast table. He said:
"When was base-ball first mentioned in the Bible?" Everybody gave it
up. It was not in Revelations (laughter), it was in the "big-inning."
(Laughter.)

http://books.google.com/books?id=Q11LAAAAMAAJ&q=inning#v=snippet&q=inning&f=false

On Fri, Feb 25, 2011 at 4:21 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Heard on Springer: "in the _first_ beginning..."
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 3:58 PM -0500 2/25/11, Wilson Gray wrote:
>>On Fri, Feb 25, 2011 at 3:04 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
>>>
>>>  In the big inning
>>
>>Way back when, there was an anecdote (published in Reader's Digest?)
>>to the effect that there was once some kind of contest, or maybe just
>>a desire, to produce the first printed edition of the Bible that would
>>be totally free of any typos whatsoever. After the first copy of the
>>"perfect edition" of the Bible had rolled off the presses, it was
>>presented to the head of the publishing house. He opened the book to
>>Genesis 1:1, where he read:
>>
>>"In the _big inning_, God created the heavens and the earth"
>>
>>When it was that I read this I can't recall, except that it was at
>>least as far back of the '50's. Larry's cites are the first time that
>>I've come across _In the big inning_ in a (pswaydo-)biblical context
>>since that time. IAC, the story immediately struck me as probably
>>apocryphal, since I hadn't heard before - or since, for that matter -
>>that typos were a major problem WRT printing the Bible.
>>
>>BTW, doesn't "big inning" have some special meaning in a baseballic
>>context?
>
> It's one in which several runs are scored--the more runs, the bigger
> the inning.  Presumably, the first day of creation would plausibly
> count as such.
>
> LH
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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