Old baseball terms

[beachpetrol]

How about throwing a "spitball".

[godwulf]

How about throwing a "spitball".

That brings up something that I've been thinking about for years. There have always been rules about a pitcher not "going to his mouth", obviously for fear that he's going to transfer some saliva from it to the ball...and yet, a pitcher can take his cap off, wipe his hand all over his sweat-soaked head, and then take the baseball in that hand. Does this make sense?

[sox83cubs84]

Bases Drunk (for bases loaded).

Dave M.

[coxfan]

How about "flied out?" For a batter whose fly ball is caught. These days, it seems to be changing to "flew out" though "flied out" was standard when I was growing up.

In high school in the 1960's, several of us were adamant with our English teacher that "flied out" was accepted usage for baseball. Complicating matters was that her husband was a baseball coach, who'd never heard "Flied out." But we were so adamant that our teacher accepted that we knew whereof we spoke on the matter.

[coxfan]

"Rabbit ears" for a player who's over-sensitive to heckling. That was a common term through the 1950's.

[coxfan]

"good field, no hit" for a player (self-explanatory.).

"Bush leagues" for the minors. "Bush and "busher" for a mlb player who doesn't meet MLB standards.

"Texas Leaguer" for bloop hit.

[Mark17]

You still hear the term "In the hole" when a shortstop goes deep to his right to make a play on a grounder, but I haven't heard it used to describe the batter who follows the on-deck hitter. We used to use that term all the time when we were kids. I think it used to refer to the part of the dugout nearest the plate, near the bat rack, where that hitter would wait his turn.

If an inning was just starting and someone told you that you were in the hole, it meant you'd hit third that inning - meaning you'd be batting for certain.

[cohibasmoker]

How about when pitchers threw "the high hard one"?

Jim

[metsbats]

I've not heard announcers use the "Mendoza line" much anymore.

[coxfan]

"Bonus baby" was a term used in the latter years of the reserve clause, before modern free agency. The only free agents back then were amateur prospects, who became the property of clubs for good once they signed their first pro contract. Clubs would give big amateur prospects signing bonuses of up to $100,000. That was big bucks at a time when rookies typically made $6,000, and even big stars like Mantle made only $75,000 in a season.

The "Bonus baby" concept was controversial as clubs feared spending would get out of hand. So to discourage the practice there was a rule that bonus babies had to go right onto the MLB club's roster without minor-league time. That was a terrible idea which contributed to the failure of nearly all bonus babies. Al Kaline, who got only $25,000 to sign, was an exception.