Henry James on Eliot on "a curved ball"

[Garson O'Toole]

On Tue, Sep 11, 2012 at 8:06 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Henry James on Eliot on "a curved ball"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Sep 11, 2012, at 5:33 PM, Alice Faber wrote:
>
>> On 9/11/12 1:47 PM, Garson O'Toole wrote:
>>> [Begin extracted text]
>>> They boasted of his making a feint to throw a ball in one direction
>>> and then throwing it in another,
>>> [End extracted text]
>>>
>>> I know that this sentence better describes the action of a pitcher
>>> keeping a runner on base and preventing a stolen base.
>>
>> Sounds like the "fake to third, throw to first" move that, for some
>> reason, isn't actually a balk.
>
> I think as long as the pitcher takes his foot off the rubber he's OK.  But that doesn't stop the fans from booing and screaming "balk".

First-and-third move on way out?
Associated Press
May 11, 2012
http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/7915369/major-league-baseball-poised-pick-1st-3rd-trick-move

[Begin excerpt]
NEW YORK -- Yankees reliever Rafael Soriano stepped toward third base
and bluffed a pickoff throw, then twirled and made a soft toss to
first. No dice, the Tampa Bay runners didn't fall for that ol' trick
-- they'd seen it too often.

Starting next year, no one might ever see that exact play again.

Major League Baseball is poised to pick off the much-maligned move,
the fake-to-third, throw-to-first ploy that often succeeds only in
getting the whole ballpark to shout "Balk!"

"I think they should get rid of it," Yankees reliever Boone Logan
said. "Us lefties can't do that. If we do, they call a balk."

"Besides, how often does it work? Maybe once in never," he said.
[End excerpt]

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