"can of corn"

[George Thompson]

"CAN OF CORN: An easily played fly ball. Reported to have originated
with the grocer’s practice in the early 1900s of storing cans of corn
on a high shelf. When a grocer needed one, he’d simply tip it forward
with *a rod or a broom handle* [?] so that it would tumble easily into his
waiting hands."

Back on Curtis street, in Meriden, Conn., in the late 1940s/early 1950s,
Mr. Christian had a special tool for getting merchandise from the highest
shelves.  On one side of one end there was a pincher, worked by a handle at
the other end; opposite the pincher was a hook.  He had the option of using
the hook to tip a box until it fell, or of lifting it down.  I thought it
was the coolest thing.  As I recall, Mr. Christian had better sense than to
put heavy, solid merchandise (like cans of corn) on the high shelves.  I
recall that they were always boxes, quite light, so if the pincher lost its
grasp, or if he muffed the falling shredded wheat, he wouldn't be flattened.
But perhaps if a retired baseball player had opened a grocery, he would put
the heavy stuff up high, so he could show that he still had good hands.

GAT


On Thu, Aug 21, 2014 at 5:59 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole <
adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:

> Charlie: Here is a link to a discussion of "can of corn" in a Google
> Books preview of "The Dickson Baseball Dictionary" by Paul Dickson
> (Third Edition). I do not know if this link will work for list
> members.
>
>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=ceeU7xSLw5kC&q=%22can+o+corn%22+#v=snippet&
>
> Below is a link to a webpage with an explanation of unknow (to me)
> veracity.
>
> Title: Origin of baseball term “can of corn”
> Date: May 2, 2008
> http://mtcave.blogspot.com/2008/05/origin-of-baseball-term-can-of-corn.html
>
> Below is another link to another webpage with an similar explanations
> of unknown (to me) veracity.
>
> http://www.wordwizard.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=18322
>
>
> Page Title: can of corn (baseball term)
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> can of corn (baseball term)
>
> Post by Ken Greenwald
> Wed Sep 14, 2005 5:50 am
>
> Ralph, You make it sound as if we are going to guess. We only give
> definitive answers around here. (<:)
>
> CAN OF CORN: An easily played fly ball. Reported to have originated
> with the grocer’s practice in the early 1900s of storing cans of corn
> on a high shelf. When a grocer needed one, he’d simply tip it forward
> with a rod or a broom handle so that it would tumble easily into his
> waiting hands.
>
> (The Language of Sport by Tim Considine)
> [End excerpt]
>
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> can of corn (baseball term)
>
> Post by Ken Greenwald
> Wed Sep 14, 2005 2:10 pm
> Gentlemen, Here’s what the 'Answer Guy' from the Seattle
> Post-Intelligencer had to say:
>
> Monday, July 30, 2001
> Answer Guy: Getting inside a 'CAN OF CORN'
>
> Q: Ever since I was a little kid, I've heard a lazy fly ball referred
> to as a "can of corn." Where did this odd little phrase originate?
>
> AG: The origin of "can of corn" is the most-repeated question received
> here. Although it was answered a few seasons ago, here it is again. A
> couple of possible sources of the phrase are cited in the definitive
> "New Dickson Baseball Dictionary." The most accepted: The phrase,
> first used in 1896, makes reference to a long-ago practice where a
> grocer would use a stick to tip a can of vegetables off a high shelf,
> then catch it in his hands or outstretched apron. Another possible
> source: Such a pop fly is as easy to capture as "corn from a can."
> [End excerpt]
>
>
> On Thu, Aug 21, 2014 at 5:32 PM, Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> > Subject:      "can of corn"
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > The expression "can of corn" in the sense of 'easy task' (or, as we
> might s=
> > ay, "piece of cake") has been familiar to me for some decades, though I
> had=
> > n't heard it in a while till last night's telecast of the Atlanta Braves
> vs=
> > . Pittsburgh Pirates baseball game.  Chip Caray remarked, about an
> easily-c=
> > aught high fly ball to center field, "That's a can of corn for BJ
> Upton."=
> > =0A=
> > =0A=
> > The expression is absent from HDAS. (I lack access to DARE and other
> refere=
> > nce works, presently.) I wonder what the image originally imported . . .
> . =
> > =0A=
> > =0A=
> > Charlie=
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
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>
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>



-- 
George A. Thompson
The Guy Who Still Looks Stuff Up in Books.
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998..

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