It’s not a run yet, but it’s the first step to getting there. In baseball, getting to first base means you’ve gotten off the mark – you’re on your way to scoring a run for your team. You might say you’re going into the extra innings in negotiations when buying a house, or even if you’re just staying back late at work one evening. Outside of baseball, we will use this phrase for anything that goes overtime. The game continues until there is a clear winner. In baseball, an extra inning is a tie-breaker inning if the regular gameplay has been completed without a result or with a tied result. Similarly, a judge might say this in a courtroom when dismissing a case but warning the culprit they have no more chances. You might use this in gambling, for example, when you’re down to your last few dollars and only have one more shot at winning. Outside of baseball, it’s a similar idea: you’re down to your last chance. In baseball, when you’re “down to the last out”, it means you’ve got no more chances – the next person who gets out will be the last, and your innings will end. In real life, we will consider a doubleheader anything that is a too big consequential activity in a row, such as going to two job interviews one after the other. It’s also a term used in other sports such as football. Often, these games are played by the same players or teams. A Double HeaderĪ doubleheader is a term used in baseball when two big games are played in one day. It’s used in any context and even other sports where something happens that changes the plan or acts as a surprising obstacle to success. Outside of baseball, to throw a curveball is to catch someone off guard. The ball curves – often very late – and can catch the batter off guard. In baseball, a curveball is an especially difficult ball to hit. Here, they are just doing it to “cover their bases” rather than because it’s absolutely necessary. For example, someone might take extra conservative measures to provide backup plans in case their first plan fails. Outside of baseball, we use the term to refer to the need to be ready for all contingencies. To cover your bases in baseball is to make sure there are players on the fielding team watching and guarding all the bases in the baseball diamond so that the ball can be passed quickly to someone who is on the base, so the runners can be caught out. For example, if you see a television advertisement that looks unprofessional, you might say that it’s a “bush league” advertisement. We use this term derogatorily in reference to someone who has done a poor job. It’s the league that regular people who aren’t too good at baseball play for social purposes. In baseball, the bush league is the amateur league (also: beer league). It is often used in business when you get a job working for (or a contract working with) a top-level firm in the industry. Similarly, in real life, you can talk about “making it to the big league” as a way of saying that you are now competing, playing, or participating in the elite level of anything. To make it to the big league or major league in baseball is to make it to the top level of competition. These terms come from the idea of someone hitting a baseball a long, long way. You can also call something a “big hit”, for example, if a new album ranks #1, you’d call it a big hit. For example, a great musician might be a “big hitter” in the music scene. To call someone a big hitter is to say they’re one of the best and greatest in their field. For example, a ballpark figure on the valuation of a house might be a guess to the nearest $100,000. Outside of baseball, we now use this term to describe an estimate or educated guess of a numerical figure. So, to seek out a ballpark figure is to get an estimate within the ballpark, but not to guarantee any specific location. When playing baseball, the ball will fall somewhere in the ballpark, but it’s hard to say exactly where. Even people who have never watched or played baseball will know and understand many of these! Baseball Metaphors, Sayings, and Idioms 1. Others are not metaphorical, but remain useful euphemisms and analogies – again, to help explain something in known shorthand.īelow, we’ve collated out 35 favorite baseball idioms, sayings, and metaphors that have made their way into everyday speech. Many of these are metaphorical because the terms aren’t used literally but as a figure of speech in which the baseball term replaces the literal event in order to explain it more effectively or in shorthand that we all understand. It’s such an influential sport that terms and idioms from baseball have become commonplace sayings used in conversations outside of the baseball context.
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