The Saint Paul globe., 1905-04-16
THE VOCABULARY OF BASEBALL

An 1rate editor wants to know what
this. from the Kansas City Journal. is
all about:
Tinker led off for the Cubs and
ozoned. EVerS slammed a clean single
to left and went to third on Kings
solitaire to the same place. King
purloined second. Pfeffer sauntered on
four wide ones, and the ITO Let" signs
were pulled down from all the bases.
A man who has been dallying with
proverb problems could tell almost at
a glance that it was an illuminating
and enthusiastic description of one
half an inning OF baseball. And we
have no patience with the man who
permits his ire to rise because the
baseball writer writes baseball for
the fans.
The national game has contributed
largely to the enrichment of the re-
sources of the language. 1t has
evolved figures of speech that are as
beacons on the grim coast of the sea
of knowledge to the fan who knows
his game and loves to read of how 1t
happened, even though he saw IT all
happen. We doubt if from any other
source the vernacular has received so
many and varied conceits in the form
of flights of fancy that are nearly allied
to poetry because they come up out Of
the hearts of the common people. 1t
may be that the ladies and gentlemen
who play poker are qualified to invent
terms and phrases to meet the exigen-
cies of game in which concentration
is INDUCED to the point of taciturnity,
but as poker games are not described
in the public prints there are no bright
young men trying the wings of genius
In the making of words and phrases for
the edification of those who read, but
do not sit in. Golf is the game of the
classes, but 1t has added a few pic
turesque terms to the vocabulary of
the few. The tremendous growth of
the English language is due to the in
PRODUCTION of terms and words born of
necessity, and in baseball this necessity
was the more imperative because of
the utter badness of the tongue when
Cap. Anson discovered first base.
DR.. Johnson described the lexi-
cographer as "a maker of words: a
harmless drudge" That was because
he lived rather early, in the paleozoic
age, as 1T were. OF one old cat. He
never saw the baseball writer roll up
his sleeves and punch his typewriter
keys to this purpose: "Chaw Sullivan
ambled to the plate. moistened his
mitts. set the man on the slab dodder-
ing with a bad eye, allowed good one
to get past, then got hot because o
ribald spectator suggested binders for
his lamps and soaked an outshoot into
the atmosphere with such villain zest
that 1T is still mixed with the rings of
Saturn. Chaw came home in a walk
and the fans went to the binlxie. while
the outfield frisked the left garden for
the lost one" If the doctor could see
the maker of words and phrases at
work in the baseball season he would
change his definition.
Baseball is not what it is, or what
you think the baseball writer means
that 1t is. 1t is a joy forever, and what 1t
VIII be tomorrow is in the knees of the
gods-or the imagination of the man
who writes the description of the game.
We grieve because of the egregious
stupidity of the editor who exclaims
angrily because he cannot understand
the peculiarly lucid language of the
philologist of the Kansas City Journal