Fred Bowen's "The Score" column,
April 6, 2007, Washington Post

Listen -- We're Always Talking Baseball

The baseball season has started. The Washington Nationals and the Baltimore Orioles have played -- and lost -- their season openers. And kids are dusting off their baseball gloves and bats to play catch and take batting practice in parks around the area.

So people are talking baseball again. Of course, people are always talking baseball. The game has been the national pastime so long -- the first fully professional baseball team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings, played in 1869 -- certain words and phrases from baseball have slipped into everyday talk.

You don't believe me? Let's have some fun and talk a little baseball.

Say you are about to take a big math test in school. The teacher could play hardball. Right off the bat, she might throw the class a curveball and ask a question that is out of left field. Even if you are caught off base, you have to step up to the plate and answer the question the best you can. Of course, the teacher might give you a softball question that you can knock out of the park.

But this is no bush league test, so you might want to cover your bases by studying the night before. Touch base with your friends in class to make sure you are studying the right problems. If they are real friends, they will go to bat for you and help you study.

Or maybe your teacher is a real screwball who will give you a rain check and let you take the test another day. More time to study would make it a whole new ball game.

If you do well on this math test, you might move up to algebra or even calculus. That's big league math. But whatever you do, play ball with your teacher. You don't want to drop the ball and flunk the test.

You get the idea. Baseball words and phrases pop up all the time.

Even folks who aren't fans might be talking baseball. There are laws in this country that say if you commit serious crimes three times, you might go to prison for a long time. The three-strikes laws come from the baseball rulebook: Three strikes and you're out.

Believe me, there must be hundreds of baseball phrases. Of course, that's just a ballpark figure.

Fred Bowen writes KidsPost's sports opinion column and is an author of sports novels for kids.

© 2007 The Washington Post Company