The Language Of Baseball

The Language of Baseball

The sun is finally shining after a long winter and a faint smell of grass is in the air. Still not entirely warm outside, blankets are laid across the bleachers and the fans are wearing sweatshirts to keep warm. Hats and sunglasses are almost needed, but not quite, as it is the beginning of the season. The players take the field to begin their warm up and you can hear the sound of the ball hitting the leather pocket of their glove as they throw it back and forth. It is spring and yes, it is the beginning of baseball season. For those of us that are veterans the sounds, sights and smells are familiar, but to those that are here for the first time, it must all seem so surreal and unfamiliar.

If you are lucky enough to have a child play competitive baseball you join a group of fans that attend as few as four and as many as eight baseball games per week. The only other option for joining this rare community of baseball fans is if you are a minor or major league baseball season ticket holder. It is while attending the hundreds of baseball games per season that you begin to understand baseball lingo. Baseball lingo is what baseball players and fans all know as baseball talk or baseball jargon and has become the universal language, recognized, understood and used routinely around the baseball world. To a large degree this language defines who is and who is not a member of the baseball community.

It is true that if you have knowledge of the terminology used by players and the fans you will have a greater enjoyment of the game. It is also true that anyone can learn the lingo, but at a price. The price is attending those hundreds of games per season. Is it worth it? For those of us in the community that love the game, it is absolutely worth it. I suppose there is a sort of power that you feel when an "outsider" comes to a game and does not know the terms. Knowing the terms makes the sport more fun and exciting.

At the beginning of a game you might hear players state they are going to use their "ace". This means that a team will be starting the game with their best pitcher on the mound or "bump" as the pitching mound can be termed. As a teammate you hope that your pitcher can throw some "cheese". This crazy term relates to the speed at which a fastball is thrown. If your pitcher throws some cheddar, he is throwing a good fastball. A batter enters the batter's box and the pitcher throws a ball, which the announcer calls "chin music". To those of us who sit in the bleachers game after game we know this means that the pitch came across the plate high and inside to the batter. Finally, the batter makes contact with the ball and sends a "frozen rope" up the third base line. Someone unfamiliar with this term might wonder what a "frozen rope" symbolizes. Those that are acquainted with baseball jargon are aware it is a hard line drive to third base.

A bullpen is the area where relief pitchers warm-up before entering a game. Depending on the ballpark, it may be situated in foul territory along the baselines or just beyond the outfield fence. When a coach calls for a "southpaw" he is looking for