"can of corn"

Fri Aug 22 03:22:18 UTC 2014

 Jonathan Lighter  wrote:
> See HDAS I, p. 358.
>
> I have heard it only in reference to baseball.
>
> Used by whom in 1896?

HDAS has a 1937 citation. "The Dickson Baseball Dictionary (Third
Edition)" lists a 1930 first use citation for "can of corn" in the Los
Angeles Times. Here is the metadata and an extended excerpt from
ProQuest. This instance does not really correspond to an easily caught
high fly ball:

Newspaper: Los Angeles Times
Newspaper location: Los Angeles, California
Date: 1930 June 19
Title: Hill Shines as Hollywood Wins, 6 to 4: RUMLER'S POKE SETTLES CLASH
Continuation title: Sheiks Thump Mission Reds
Author: Bob Ray
Start Page 11
Quote Page 13, Column 4 (continuation page number listed in article)
Database ProQuest

[Begin except]
Ike Boone, the league's leading hitter, again went hitless, which
makes it a big seven for, oh, as far as the present series is
concerned. Ike came close to a hit in the third when he slashed a
torrid drive to left center, but Hill galloped over in front of the
ball and leaped up to turn what looked like a sure double into just a
can of corn, as the baseball boys call an out.
[End excerpt]

The 1896 citation is in "The New Dickson Baseball Dictionary". Google
Books has three copies but all three are in No Preview mode. Amazon
has a copy and Look Inside allows one to see page 99 which shows part
of the entry for "can of corn".  Dickson also lists the variant "can
o' corn". The key citation starts with the following text. The next
part of the text is printed on page 100 which I cannot see, but I
doubt Dickson gives a page number:

[Begin excerpt]
1st Use. 1896. (Burt L. Standish, Frank Merriwell's Schooldays . . .
[End excerpt]

This citation information also appears in a newspaper article online
at the SeattlePI website of Seattle Washington:

Title: Answer Guy: New eats, amazing factoids and more in Season 11
Author: By JOHN MARSHALL, P-I REPORTER
Timestamp: Published 10:00 pm, Sunday, April 2, 2006
http://www.seattlepi.com/sports/baseball/article/Answer-Guy-New-eats-amazing-factoids-and-more-1200070.php

[Begin excerpt]
Q: Donald Bednarz asks, "How did the saying 'can of corn' come about
and when was it first used in baseball?"

AG: Why not start 2006 with a rare reprise of perhaps the most
frequent question received in this column's history? According to the
definitive "New Dickson Baseball Dictionary," the use of "can of corn"
for an easy fly ball is widely thought to have originated back in
olden days when grocers would tip a can of veggies from a top shelf in
the store and then catch it, either via hands or their aprons. First
published use of the term was in 1896 in "Frank Merriwell's
Schooldays" by Burt L. Standish.
[End excerpt]

Google Books contains some copies of Frank Merriwell's Schooldays, but
they are in No Preview mode. HathiTrust has a copy of the 1901 edition
in Full View mode here:

[Begin HathiTrust metadata]
Title: Frank Merriwell's school days / by Burt L. Standish, [pseud.].
Main Author: Standish Published: Philadelphia: David McKay, 1901.
Note: Originally published in 1896., Burt L., 1866-1945.
Physical Description: 302 p. : ill.
[End HathiTrust metadata]

http://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc2.ark:/13960/t76t0jb4w

I searched for "corn" in this book and there was one match on page 11.
The match was irrelevant. It did not show "can of corn" or "can o'
corn". I searched for variants and found nothing relevant.

This HathiTrust book is the 1901 edition and not the 1896 edition. So
the phrase may be in the 1896 edition. It is also possible that I did
not search for the appropriate dialectical spelling in the 1901
edition.

The Internet Archive has a scanned copy of the 1901 edition here:

https://archive.org/stream/frankmsschoolday00staniala#page/n5/mode/2up

Here is a link to the raw OCR. I searched in the raw OCR and could not
find the target phrase:

https://ia700409.us.archive.org/19/items/frankmsschoolday00staniala/frankmsschoolday00staniala_djvu.txt

WorldCat lists an 1896 edition. So there is evidence that the 1896
edition exists, but there does not appear to be an accessible scanned
version online.

[Begin WorldCat metadata]
Title: Frank Merriwell's schooldays; A tale of school life at Fardale Academy.
Author: Burt L Standish
Publisher: New York, Street & Smith [1896]
Series: The Merriwell series, no. 1
[End WorldCat metadata]

Summary, the 1930 cite is interesting. At this point, I haven't been
able to precisely locate the 1896 cite.
Garson

On Thu, Aug 21, 2014 at 7:48 PM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "can of corn"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> See HDAS I, p. 358.
>
> I have heard it only in reference to baseball.
>
> Used by whom in 1896?
>
> JL
>
>
> On Thu, Aug 21, 2014 at 5:59 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole <
> adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: "can of corn"
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> 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=3DceeU7xSLw5kC&q=3D%22can+o+corn%22+#v=3Ds=
>> nippet&
>>
>> Below is a link to a webpage with an explanation of unknow (to me)
>> veracity=
>> .
>>
>> Title: Origin of baseball term =E2=80=9Ccan of corn=E2=80=9D
>> 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=3D7&t=3D18322
>>
>>
>> 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=E2=80=99s practice in the early 1900s of storing cans of
>> co=
>> rn
>> on a high shelf. When a grocer needed one, he=E2=80=99d simply tip it
>> forwa=
>> rd
>> 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=E2=80=99s 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=3D
>> > ay, "piece of cake") has been familiar to me for some decades, though I
>> h=
>> ad=3D
>> > n't heard it in a while till last night's telecast of the Atlanta Braves
>> =
>> vs=3D
>> > . Pittsburgh Pirates baseball game.  Chip Caray remarked, about an
>> easily=
>> -c=3D
>> > aught high fly ball to center field, "That's a can of corn for BJ
>> Upton."=
>> =3D
>> > =3D0A=3D
>> > =3D0A=3D
>> > The expression is absent from HDAS. (I lack access to DARE and other
>> refe=
>> re=3D
>> > nce works, presently.) I wonder what the image originally imported . . .
>> =
>> . =3D
>> > =3D0A=3D
>> > =3D0A=3D
>> > Charlie=3D
>> >
>> > ------------------------------------------------------------
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>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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