Base Ball Phrases - 1875

This item came from an August, 1875 edition of the Ticonderoga Sentinel published in Ticonderoga, NY. Some of them are still relevant some 131 years later.

Base Ball Phrases

People who are puzzled at the technical phrases used in base ball reports are commended to the perusal of the following definitions.

Field - The cow pasture where the leather-hunting is performed.

Base - Salt bags scattered around in the grass for the players to jump on.

Nine - A number of roosters in knee breeches that constitute a base ball deck.

Umpire - The chief baller--he bawls out "strikes." His other duty is to sit on the top of the bat and smell the ball as it goes by.

Judgment - The umpire's opinion after taking a smell.

One ball - What the umpire says when the smell proves unsatisfactory.

Strike - A miscue by the batter.

Put out - The fellow who tries to get it without pay five cents.

Dead ball - One which comes to life again after being buried--in the hands of the pitcher.

Foul - A ball which bounds just the way one is positive it will not.

Fair foul - A little one for a cent.

Balk - "A breach of promise" indulged in by the pitcher.

Stealing a base - Stuffing a bag in the car and walking off to the next, when the catcher isn't looking.

Beauty - A ball so hot that the second baseman lies on his stomach to avoid it.

Hot balls - One that singes the short stop's head as it goes by.

Fly - A ball which scorns the earth, and, like the gentle horse fly buzzes around in the elevated atmosphere.

Wild throw - Slingin at the third baseman, and killing a small boy in right field.