[Ads-l] "heat" = fastball (1967)

[Grant Barrett]

Nice. I took a brief look recently and found it in 1969, with several cases
in the early 70s of people calling "heat" out in quotes, probably
indicating it was new or slangy to them. GB

On Wed, Aug 31, 2022 at 10:09 AM Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:

> Paul Dickson's Baseball Dictionary has an example of "heat" referring to a
> pitcher's fastball from the Nov. 1974 issue of Baseball Digest. Here are a
> couple of antedatings.
>
> ---
> https://www.newspapers.com/clip/108675569/heat-fastballs/
> Boston Globe, Nov. 30, 1967, p. 41, col. 2
> [Tony Conigliaro:] "When we get going I'm going to have some of our guys
> give me some heat (fastballs), and I'll know then if I'll have any
> problems."
> ---
> https://www.newspapers.com/clip/108675982/seaver-heat/
> Newsday, Apr. 23, 1970, p. 44, col. 1
> He was protecting a count of one ball, two strikes, and he knew the
> fastball was coming. "I knew he [Tom Seaver] was going to give me his
> heat," [Al] Ferrara said, "because he was really bringing it."
> ---
>
> OED, as is the case for so many baseball terms, has zero coverage for
> "heat," "heater," "high heat," etc.
>
> --bgz
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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