Bill Klem Quote

[Shapiro, Fred]

Note that this famous quote is in The Yale Book of Quotations, under Bill Klem's name, although the earliest attribution I found (1948) is to a different umpire, Charlie Moran.  Perhaps Garson or Bill or Sam or Stephen or Ben or someone else can find it earlier than 1948.

Fred Shapiro



________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Jonathan Lighter [wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM]
Sent: Thursday, May 26, 2011 8:47 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: narrative

I calls 'em as I sees 'em.

(PS: This famous quote, from an anecdote told by baseball umpire Bill Klem,
 is absent from YBQ despite a whopping 2,000,000 raw Gogglits. GB takes it
back to 1929.)

JL

On Thu, May 26, 2011 at 8:34 AM, Amy West <medievalist at w-sts.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Amy West <medievalist at W-STS.COM>
> Subject:      Re: narrative
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On 5/26/11 12:03 AM, Automatic digest processor wrote:
> > Date:    Wed, 25 May 2011 16:19:46 +0100
> > From:    Michael Quinion<wordseditor at WORLDWIDEWORDS.ORG>
> > Subject: Re: narrative
> >
> > Ron Butters wrote:
> >
> >> >  "On the back foot" appears to be a mere slip of the tongue, a blend
> of
> >> >  (?) "on the back burner" and "on the wrong foot" (though that
> >> >  interpretation does not seem to lead to the reading that JL gives
> it).
> > It's not an error but a British English idiom from cricket. It comes from
> > a batsman's being forced to put his weight on to his back foot, to take
> up
> > a defensive posture, because of the strength or accuracy of the bowler.
> As
> > an idiom it mean that a person has been forced into a defensive position.
> >
>
> Thanks for doing our homework for us, Michael!
>
> --
> ---Amy West
>
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