[Ads-l] to "pull a fast one"

[Laurence Horn]

The odd thing about “pull a fast one (on somebody)” with the meaning ‘perform an underhanded trick’ is that that’s the functional opposite of throwing a literal fast ball, which is precisely what conforms to the batter’s expectation.  It’s throwing a change-up (or a curve ball, which is indeed used in that figurative sense*) that amounts to pulling a metaphorical fast one.  Wonder how “pull a fast one” developed its counter-expectational meaning. Maybe it’s not the actual speed of the fast ball but that the pitcher threw it before the batter was set, i.e. a "quick pitch" rather than a fast ball per se.  I can imagine “to quick-pitch” being used in this sense, although I’m not sure I’ve heard it used metaphorically in this way.  

*OED, s.v. “curve ball”:
 2.  figurative. Originally U.S. Something whose unexpectedness or unpredictable nature enables one to disorient or wrong-foot one's opponents; (more generally) something unexpected, surprising, or disorienting. Often in  to throw (someone) a curveball. 

LH 

> On Jun 7, 2023, at 2:37 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> OED's primary example (1912) is pretty clearly about a fastball, not an
> underhanded trick. "Fast one" was and is a usual term for a fastball (or,
> formerly, a sharply hit ball):
> 
> 1898 St. Louis Republic (Sept. 26) 5: Not once during the game did he put
> over a fast one. [I.e., put one over home plate.]
> 
> 1900 Chicago Tribune (July 27) 9: The Captain, however, pulled a fast one
> close to the third bag which Sullivan could only partially stop.
> 
> 1901 Rockford [Ill.] Republic (May 1) 2: Isbell pulled a fast one to right,
> and Dillon reached for it as it shot past him.
> 
> 1909 Montgomery [Ala.] Advertiser (Jan. 25) 8: Why, if [pitchers] Ed Walsh
> or "Bill" Donovan ever slip a fast one at him, it will scare him to death.
> 
> 1912 Evening Star {Washington, D.C.) 11: Get in there and hustle. Put over
> a fast one and show that batter up.
> 
> 
> OED has fig. (and obs.?) "put over a fast one" from 1913, making it the
> earliest "fast one" (shrewd or deceptive maneuver)
> 
> 
> OED's first "pull a fast one," which is now usual, is from 1930.
> 
> 1919 Buffalo [N.Y.] Evening Times (Sept. 29) 12: Trickiest Play of Recent
> Years on the Diamond - Charles Dooin Pulls a Fast One and a Great Argument
> Results.
> 
> JL
> 
> On Wed, Jun 7, 2023 at 8:26 AM Stephen Goranson <goranson at duke.edu> wrote:
> 
>> Sleight of hand?
>> It may be that someone commented (hear tell, unapproved by moderator)
>> on a NY Times article about
>> President Biden's age something to the effect that Biden may not have
>> pulled a fast one on House Speaker McCarthy in the debt limit talks
>> but maybe he pulled a slow one.
>> 
>> sg. maybe for a friend
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
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>> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
> 
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