[Ads-l] Olympics-related WOTY? (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Dan Goncharoff]

What is this from? The goat of Azazel?

DanG

On Mon, Aug 15, 2016 at 5:26 PM, MULLINS, WILLIAM D (Bill) CIV USARMY
RDECOM AMRDEC (US) <william.d.mullins18.civ at mail.mil> wrote:

> CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED
>
> Slightly earlier:
>
> _The Sporting Life_ 10 Aug 1907 p 5 col 4
> "Nick Altrock continues to be the goat. He is the unlucky pitcher of the
> team this year, and to date has won four games, lost eleven and tied one."
>
>
>
> > The Grammarphobia notes that goat has been used negatively in sports "as
> a derisive term for a player responsible for a team’s loss".
> > Grammarphobia provides an excellent citation via The Dickson Baseball
> Dictionary (3rd ed.), by Paul Dickson. The citation is dated October
> > 10, 1909. Here is an instance from a few months earlier:
> >
> > Date: April 24, 1909
> > Newspaper: Denver Post
> > Newspaper Location: Denver, Colorado
> > Quote Page 7, Column 4
> > Database:GenealogyBank
> >
> > [Begin excerpt]
> > It was all a question of luck, which broke the wrong way, as it
> sometimes will. The Sox inserted their bad breaks in the wrong places, and
> it
> > is with grief we announce the blowing up of Pilot Bill. He was the goat
> all right and is in position to cuss himself good and plenty.
> > If Bill had not included that cloud-rasping throw in the eighth the
> champions would not have been able to tie on Doc's wild pitch in the
> > eleventh.
> > [End excerpt]
> >
> >
> CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org