{"id":193,"date":"2009-07-21T23:28:00","date_gmt":"2009-07-21T23:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/?p=193"},"modified":"2021-07-22T12:17:48","modified_gmt":"2021-07-22T16:17:48","slug":"important-idioms-from-baseball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/important-idioms-from-baseball\/","title":{"rendered":"Important Idioms from Baseball"},"content":{"rendered":"

I love baseball, especially watching my Toronto Blue Jays team.\u00a0 It’s my favourite part of summer.\u00a0 I was preparing some baseball idioms and expressions for one of my clients soon, when I thought that I should at least add a few here, on this blog, for you too! \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

It is easy to find lots of sites that have baseball idioms and expressions. You can find many with a simple search. However, knowing the idioms does not mean that you understand it. Therefore I suggest you also find a source that explains what the expressions mean as well.<\/p>\n

For now, here is an excerpt from one such blog:<\/p>\n

Baseball English \u2013 Important Idioms <\/span>
\n(excerpt from \u201cKenneth\u201d, a blogger on English Caf\u00e9.com – and that site may be expired<\/span>) http:\/\/www.englishcafe.com\/node\/8616<\/a><\/p>\n

Baseball Terminology<\/span><\/p>\n

to get to first base – There are four bases in baseball. You must get to first base to start.
\nto come out of left field – to be thrown from the left part of the playing surface. This includes third base and the left outfielder position.
\nto have two strikes against you – Three strikes and you are out in baseball.
\nto hit a home run – to hit a ball which can not be fielded and sends the batter around the bases to score a run.
\nballpark figure – The ballpark is where baseball is played.
\nto play hardball – Major league baseball is hardball. A hardball is a small, hard ball. There is also softball which is larger and softer.
\nto touch base – To touch the base with your foot
\nto pinch-hit – to bat for someone else
\nmajor league – the top professional baseball league
\nminor league – the secondary professional baseball league
\nto play the field – to catch, throw and generally play baseball. Playing the field is the defensive position of a team, while batting is the offensive position.<\/p>\n

Baseball Idioms<\/span><\/p>\n

to get to first base – accomplish the first step in a process
\nto come out of left field – to not be related to the current topic \/ to seem strange in a given situation
\nto have two strikes against you – to be in a difficult situation
\nto hit a home run – to have a large success
\nballpark figure – a rough financial estimate, not exact but enough to give an indication
\nto play hardball – to be extremely competitive often in an unfair manner
\nto touch base – to contact someone – often someone with whom you haven’t been in contact for a long time
\nto pinch-hit – to substitute for someone
\nmajor league – serious competition or competitor
\nminor league – competition which is not threatening (opposite of major league)
\nto play the field – to date several different people<\/p>\n

The best way to learn idioms is to organize them by a theme (like sports, or one sport in particular) and learn what not just how to use it in conversation, but the history of the expression or the ‘normal’ use of the phrase, just like it’s outlined above.\u00a0 Pick a few of the expressions that speak to you, and try to use them in the next couple of days.\u00a0 Watch for feedback.
\nEnjoy!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I love baseball, especially watching my Toronto Blue Jays team.\u00a0 It’s my favourite part of summer.\u00a0 I was preparing some baseball idioms and expressions for one of my clients soon, when I thought that I should at least add a few here, on this blog, for you too! \ud83d\ude09 It is easy to find lots […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[535,537],"tags":[696,671,583,673],"class_list":["post-193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-esl-cultural-communications","category-speak-english-better","tag-baseball","tag-expressions","tag-idioms","tag-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1476,"href":"https:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193\/revisions\/1476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}