Baseball. Building English One Mash-Up At A Time.

Every so often, baseball creates new words.  "Slurve" is a pitch between a slider and a curve ball.  There's a "Splinker" between a slider and a sinker ball.  There's also a "Chitter" (gotta watch that pronunciation on air!) between a curve ball and a splitter.  And many others.  This year we got the phrase "Torpedo Bat" added to the lexicon.

Last year, an announcer dropped "drop ankle" instead of "dropped anchor" as he referred to a runner rounding first base and stopping quickly.  Sadly, it didn't catch on, despite my best efforts.

Most of the new baseball words and phrases aren't likely to make it into regular use.

This one should.

During a game between the L.A. Dodgers and the Chicago Cubs, a ball was hit down the first base line.  Freddy Freeman tried but failed to dive for the ball as it shot past him.  The announcer, in the heat of the moment torn between "Freddy made a valiant effort" and "Freddy made a gallant effort" said:

"Freddy made a galliant effort."

Spellcheck gives it the red wavy line, but I like it.

Galliant.  It's going in my personal dictionary.