BASE BALL
LINGO: WHAT THE EXPRESSIONS MEAN,
HOW THEY GOT THAT WAY (Part II)
Reactions
to Part I were so effusive, that Part II is here for your enjoyment. Reactions
always welcomed.
THE WALKING MAN Eddie Yost played nearly two decades in the
major leagues. His lifetime batting average was only .254, but that didn't keep
him off the bases. Yost coaxed pitchers into yielding I,614 walks to him—almost
a walk a game through his long career.
WEE WILLIE He was born March 3, 1872, in Brooklyn, New
York. He died on January 1, 1923, in Brooklyn, New York. William Henry Keeler
made his debut at the Polo Grounds as a member of the New York Giants on
September 30, 1892. He singled off the Phillies' Tim Keefe for the first of his
2,926 career hits. The son of a Brooklyn trolley switchman, Keeler Two
years later became a member of the famed Baltimore
Orioles.
A lefty all the way, he weighed only 140
pounds and was a shade over 5'4". His tiny physical stature earned him his
nickname, but pound for pound he was one of the greatest hitters baseball ever
produced. Keeler played for 19 years and recorded a lifetime batting average of
.345, fifth on the all-time list. He collected 2,962 hits in 2,124 games,
spraying the ball to all fields. Wee Willie's greatest year was 1897, a season
in which he batted .432, recorded 243 hits and 64 stolen bases, and scored 145
runs. He swung a bat that weighed only 30 ounces, but as he said, he
"hit 'em where they aint’.
In 1897, Keeler batted an incredible .432.
A reporter asked the diminutive batter, "Mr. Keeler, how can a man your
size hit .432?"
The reply to that question has become a
rallying cry for all kinds of baseball players in all kinds of leagues:
"Simple," Keeler smiled. "I keep my eyes clear and I hit 'em
where they ain't."
The
Sporting News offered this mangled prose about Keeler as a fielder. "He
swears by the teeth of his mask-carved horse chestnut, that he always carries
with him as a talisman that he inevitably dreams of it in the night before when
he is going to boot one - muff an easy fly ball, that is to say, in the meadow
on the morrow. 'All of us fellows in the outworks have got just so many of them
in a season to drop and there's no use trying to buck against fate'."
William Henry Keeler played 19 years in the
major leagues and finished his career with a .345 lifetime batting
average. Quite justifiably the little man was one of the first to be enshrined
in the National Baseball Hal of Fame in
1939.
THE WHIP A 6'6"
right-hander, Ewell Blackwell had a sidearm motion and a crackling fastball
that terrorized National League batters in the 1940's and 1950's. The former
Cincinnati star's right arm seemed to "whip" the ball in at the
batter, and that's how his nickname came to be. Winner of sixteen straight
games in 1947, he struck out almost a batter an inning during his ten year
career.
WHIZ KIDS There is no clear explanation as to how the
1950 Philadelphia Phillies baseball team earned its nickname. Some ascribe the
name's derivation to the club's youth and newness: only one regular on that
team that won the National League pennant was over 30 years of age. Some claim
the nickname was a spinoff from the phrase "gee whiz," since the
Phillies of that year seemingly came from nowhere to challenge and defeat the
great Brooklyn Dodgers for the pennant. It was a team that because of its
youth, its underdog role, and its past history of failure, attracted national
attention and fused its personality to its nickname.
WILD HORSE OF THE
OSAGE Johnny Leonard Roosevelt Martin, better known as Pepper Martin,
starred for 13 seasons with the National League's St. Louis Cardinals. He could
hit, he could run, he could field, he could throw, he could win—and he did all
of these things with wild abandon, with an elan and a verve that earned him his
nickname. If he couldn't stop a hard smash down to his third-base position with
his glove, he would stop the ball with his chest. If he could not get
into a base feet-first, he would leap into the air and belly-flop his way
there. Martin took the extra base, risked the daring chance, played with fire
and fury. Three times in the mid-1930's he led the league in stolen bases, and
throughout that decade he functioned as the horse that led the Cardinal
"Gashouse Gang" (see GASHOUSE GANG).
WIZARD OF OZ An abbreviation of his first name
and tip of the cap to Ozzie Smith for his peerless fielding skills. No other
shortstop could get to the ball as fast as, and utilize the fielders around him
like Ozzie.
WORLD SERIES In 1903 the Pittsburgh Pirates of the National
League won their third consecutive pennant. Owner Barney Dreyfuss was
instrumental in arranging for a set of postseason games with the American
League champion Boston Somersets (later Red Sox). The teams played a nine-game
series, with Boston winning five of the games (one of their pitchers was Cy
Young) and the World Championship. There was a one-year interruption in the
competition, because the 1904 National League pennant-winner was the New York
Giants, whose owner, John T. Bush, refused to allow his team to oppose an
American League entry. Part of the reason behind Bush's refusal was the
existence of a rival American League team in New York City. By 1905 Bush had
changed his mind and even helped shape the new format for the World Series—a
best-of-seven competition—and behind Christy Mathewson, who pitched three
shutouts, the Giants defeated the Philadelphia Athletics in five games. Dubbed
the Fall Classic, the World Series year in and year out has become an integral,
appealing part of the American sports scene.
YA GOTTA BELIEVE In 1973 the New York
Mets bolted from last place on August 30 to win the National League Eastern
Division title on the final day of the season. Pitcher Tug McGraw had coined a
slogan, "Ya gotta believe," which acted as the team's battle
cry and motivation. Lacking a .300 hitter, a 20-game winner, a 100-RBI man, the
"believing" Mets swept by Cincinnati in the play-offs and battled
Oakland to the seventh game of the World Series before finally losing (see
AMAZIN' METS).
YANKEE CLIPPER Joseph Paul DiMaggio was
one of nine children of a fisherman father who had emigrated from Sicily. It
was all planned for Joe to become a fisherman like his father, but Joe could
not abide the smell of fish.
In
1934, he was playing baseball about as well as it could be played when his
contract with the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League was purchased
by the Yankees. The deal contained the clause that the graceful outfielder be
allowed to play one more season for the seals. His 1935 season gave the people
of San Francisco something to remember - he batted .398, recorded 270 hits, and
drove in 154
runs.
Permission
was granted for DiMag in 1936 to drive cross-country with fellow San
Franciscans Tony Lazzeri and Frank Crosetti to the Yankee spring training camp
in St. Petersburg, Florida. Lazzeri turned to DiMaggio after the trio had
concluded one day of driving and said, "You take over, Joe."
"I
don't drive," DiMaggio
answered
It
was reported that these were the only words he uttered during the entire
three-day automobile trek.
In
DiMaggio's time, 13 seasons, the Yankees
won 10 pennants. In 1951, the man they called the Yankee Clipper, retired at
age 36. Management attempted to get him to perform in pinstripes for one more
season. But he had too much pride, and too much pain. He knew it was over.
Like the famed Yankee clipper ships that sailed the
oceans riding the winds and the tides, DiMaggio moved across the reaches of the
center-field pastureland of Yankee Stadium flawlessly playing his kind of
game—steady, stoical, dependable. His nickname accentuated his role and style.
ABOUT
HARVEY
FROMMER
One of the most prolific and respected sports journalists and oral
historians in the United States, author of the autobiographies of legends
Nolan Ryan, Tony Dorsett, and Red Holzman,
Dr. Harvey Frommer has been a professor for more than two decades in the
MALS program at Dartmouth College. Dubbed “Dartmouth’s Mr. Baseball” by their
alumni magazine, he’s also the founder of www.HarveyFrommerSports.com. Books for Father’s Day
(and special days, discounted, mint, signed and deeply discounted are available
from his books page http://frommerbooks.com/
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