It’s impossible to imagine American culture without baseball. It has become a veritable national sport and it has vastly affected the culture and our everyday routine. The phrases that are the vocabulary of baseball are now used daily.
Success idioms
We cannot talk about sports and not mention success. A home run, which is probably the most big-time move for a batter, is casually used as a metaphor for any substantial accomplishment. Another phrase for it is “batting a thousand”. The idiom can also be used in a sarcastic way to say that the person is a “pro” at doing wrong. The “big hitter” and “big league” expressions are also from baseball and they obviously mean the remarkable people and organizations.
Innings
It`s purely a baseball thing that is widely used by businessmen. The meaning is clearly the same as it is in the game. “Early innings” usually refer to the very beginning of a certain process while the “extra innings” are usually applied to the extended deadlines of resolving an issue. The ninth inning here means the upcoming end of a certain process.
Screwball
A spinning baseball pitch definition has become an interesting idiom for describing an eccentric and kind of crazy person. This definition has been routinely used since 1933. The phrase “screwball comedy” refers to the work of a legendary Oscar-nominee Carol Lombard.
Conclusion
There is no doubt that without baseball and all of its derivatives the American English vocabulary would be less crammed with useful and witty expressions. There are dozens and hundreds of them and we can thank athletes for making those expressions a part of our everyday speech.
What idioms from baseball do you use in your usual life? Tell us in the comments.
Also, you can read about Athletes from Other Sports Who Could Shine in Baseball
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