[Ads-l] spasm = baseball inning (antedating, 1890)

[Bonnie Taylor-Blake]

Dickson's Baseball Dictionary has an example from 1905 for its earliest for
"spasm" with a meaning of a baseball inning.

https://www.baseball-almanac.com/dictionary-term.php?term=spasm

Below I've tacked on some examples that precede that 1905 usage.

I'm stumped, though, by some seemingly earlier non-baseball uses of
"spasm," meanings of which don't seem to be included in the OED. ("Spasm"
to mean inning isn't in the OED, either.) For these mysterious (to me)
uses, see, for example,
https://www.newspapers.com/article/evansville-courier-and-press-spasm-not/151933621/
and
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-kansas-herald-spasm-weird-usa/151937461/.
These uses suggest "session" and similar and it occurs to me that "spasm"
in the context of baseball is an extension of this.

-- Bonnie

The clerks had just piled up a total of 18 runs when the last man was put
out in the sixth spasm. ["Crushed Compositors; They Receive a Lesson in
Ball Playing from McWhirr's Nine," Fall River (Massachusetts) Daily Globe,
9 July 1890, p. 1;
https://www.newspapers.com/article/fall-river-globe-spasm-inning-7990/151933149/
.]

Then Shannon and Twitchell went out, but on Halligan's corking double Jimmy
ran home, and "Old Cy's" out ended the spasm. ["Same Old Way of Playing;
Omaha and Milwaukee Continue the Programme of Last Year," The Omaha Daily
Bee, 17 April 1891, p. 2;
https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A16A0C202DC737BFA%40GB3NEWS-1663B68451092E66%402411840-1663B68D20AAE10E%402-1663B68D20AAE10E?clipid=kgfxukqkmytmxbvizwbbcexvygjswzpy_ip-10-166-46-104_1722346275300
.]

Coolers were the order of the day during the game and both clubs covered
themselves with glory and errors. After the fifth spasm one reporter
collapsed in the cage ond [sic] was compelled to resort to a bicycle to
restore circulation. ["Fake Fun; Tiresome Exhibition of Alleged Ball
Playing Yesterday," Fall River (Massachusetts) Daily Globe, 11 June 1891,
p. 8;
https://www.newspapers.com/article/fall-river-globe-spasm-inning-61191/151933250/
.]

Swarts Lodge started right in to win everything and did so until the close
of the fifth inning, when the score was nip and tuck. Swarts maintained a
lead, however, until the ninth spasm ... ["Fraternal Societies; Odd
Fellows," The Providence Sunday Journal, 20 August 1893, p. 6;
https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A14728889532D3B69%40GB3NEWS-1637153B813AE8B0%402412696-1636BF1D1F06B12E%405-1636BF1D1F06B12E?clipid=hmsiojxyzqmlwpdklnxmxccxsrxtkuck_ip-10-166-46-150_1721846768311
.]

Kloby pitched, and was touched up pretty lively in the fourth, when the
second spasm of the game commenced. ["Rain Prevented; The Completion of
Saturday's Ball Game," Fall River (Massachusetts) Daily Globe, 16 July
1894, p. 1;
https://www.newspapers.com/article/fall-river-globe-spasm-inning-71694/151937020/
.]

Second Spasm -- George Smith hit for two bases, and Parrott hit for three
bases. Wittrock singled; Fuller made a bad throw -- two runs. [Multiple
appearances of "spasm" used for "inning" in this section. In "In a Few
Days; All This Agony Will Be Over -- That's Consolation," The Cincinnati
Post, 29 September 1894, p. 5;
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-cincinnati-post-spasm-inning-929/151932967/
.]

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