Texas Leaguer: “a blooping arc batted ball that has just enough ‘oomph’ to elude the glove of the infielder going back for it while also falling short of the outfielder’s glove as he hustles in for it, touching the ground safely and getting the hitter to first with a special kind of bloop single.”
I haven’t walked this road in print recently, but it’s always fun to do. That is, to go through the fun-litany of all the “comes to mind” nicknames that baseball people over time have come up with as special descriptions of the many different kinds of hits a batter may get over time just playing the grand old game.
Texas Leaguer always jumps first to the front of my mind, probably because I heard it used so much by Loel Passes on radio broadcasts of Houston Buffs games – and by Dizzy Dean on the Saturday telecasts of the big league Game of the Week. A Texas Leaguer is “a blooping arc batted ball that has just enough ‘oomph’ to elude the glove of the infielder going back for it while also falling short of the outfielder’s glove as he hustles in for it, touching the ground safely and getting the hitter to first with a (other name coming up) bloop single. – The technical difference here is: It takes both the coming in and going out fielders to justify the Texas Leaguer call. You can get a bloop single, however, with only one infielder going out – or one outfielder coming in.
Here are a few other special hit nicknames that come to mind without research. These just happen to be my favorites. Please feel free to add your own best picks as column responses to this article. Maybe we’ll get the beginning of a baseball’s special hit compendium collection started here.
Worm Burner: A ball hit sharply through the infield with little to no bounce. It’s dynamic speed and hard rolling energy contact with the ground’s surface and generate a level of frictional heat that is sufficient to burn the flesh of all worms who live just beneath the surface of the ballpark’s terra firma.
Blue Darter: A slashing line drive that leaves the infield on a catchable ground-parallel trajectory, but at a rate of speed that is beyond most human capacity for fielding response, unless your name was Brooks Robinson. Blue Darters derives their name from the blue-hue blur they create as the only visual evidence that is available to those fielders with vision that is sufficient to trek their infinitesimally brief life spans.
Seeing-Eye Single: A ball that isn’t necessarily hit hard, just hard enough to see its way through the small hole of space that opens between two crossing fielders who fail to stop this kind of batted ball on its merry way to the outfield and registration as a hit for the batter that placed it in motion.If you had to pick out a movie character that best personifies the “seeing eye single,” I would nominate Steve McQueen in “The Great Escape” for that roll.
Rope: A ball that leaves the infield as a live drive on an ascending trajectory. Ropes frequently clear an infielder’s glove by a couple of inches, only to leave the ball park by twenty feet in height at the point of departure. Bob Boyd of the Houston buffs and Baltimore Orioles was so good at this style of hitting that his nickname became “The Rope.” Oh yes. a fellow named Lou Gehrig was a pretty fair “rope” hitter in his own right.
Baltimore Chopper: Made famous by the hustling, mean-spirited, anything-for-a-win Baltimore Orioles of the 1890s, these were balls that were first bunted, but sometimes batted down upon the home plate for the sake of the gigantic bounce this kind of contact created, allowing the batter to reach fist safely before the fielder could make make a play.
That’s it for me this morning – and I hardly touched the long ball calls. Please step up and add your own favorites to the lexicon pool. And also give us as much info as you feel we may need to understand what you are talking about.
It won’t hurt you – and it could be a lot of fun.
Tags: baseball linguistics
The Pecan Park Eagle 
August 30, 2012 at 1:38 pm |
Our current Astro team of , “bench warmers”, self explanatory.
August 30, 2012 at 2:26 pm |
One of my favorites is the “noisy out” that sounded impressive as it left the bat and sailed high and far into the sky as the fans came out of their seats in anticipated celebration only to see it fall gently into the outfielder’s glove at or near the warning track with no special effort needed to haul it in. This phenomenon happens often in front of Tal’s Hill.
August 30, 2012 at 9:13 pm |
I’ve always heard “The Rope” as “Frozen Rope”.
August 30, 2012 at 9:47 pm |
I loved “frozen rope/” It visualized as … No. Arc. At all.
August 30, 2012 at 9:30 pm |
“Can of Corn” is fly ball that is easy to catch, Back in the general store days the canned corn was always stored on the top shelf since almost everyone grew their own corn. Using a stick you could knock off the can and catch it easily.According to t he documentary The first 75 years of Baseball.
“Bow tie” or “Chin music” the famous brushback pitch that would hit your bow tie or chin.
“Oppo Dingo” Opposite field home run
“Daisy Cutter” same as a “worm burner”
“Rag Arm” Worn out relief pitcher who’s best days on the mound are behind him.
August 31, 2012 at 3:23 pm |
Although not a “hit” per se, the “Atom Ball”
has been a term I utilize. “It would have been a hit, but it went right at’m!”
September 3, 2012 at 1:52 pm |
A great resource for baseball terms and just a fun coffee table book for baseball fans.