great stuff: football and international politics

[Larry Sheldon]

On 3/16/2012 12:16 PM, Laurence Horn 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: great stuff: football
> and international politics
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>  On Mar 16, 2012, at 12:43 PM, Larry Sheldon wrote:
>
>> On 3/16/2012 3:47 AM, W Brewer wrote:
>>
>>> <<<   still a debate over whether the Chinese or the English
>>> invented the game>>>
>>>
>>> WB:  We also invented the game at St James Elementary School, Mt
>>> Ranier MD, circa 1955. We called it kickball, and rules were
>>> determined by the biggest kid in the parking lot.
>>
>> We played kickball at Chevy Chase elementary in Toonerville
>> (Atwater district, Los Angeles) in the late 1940s -- rules similar
>> to softball, as modified by circumstances,
>
> In all the versions of kickball I remember playing (early-mid 1950s,
> NYC), you can retire a runner by hitting them with the ball (between
> bases).  Such throws are frowned upon in softball.

True and true that and I started to mention it.  Just for the curiosity,
I think a runner is out in softball if touched by a batted (but not
thrown) ball.  Keeps runners from deflecting a batted ball away from a
fielder.  (being hit by a thrown ball might in some cases be
"interference").

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