Glossary of English-language idioms derived from baseball

This is an alphabetical list of common English-language idioms based on baseball, excluding the extended metaphor referring to sex, and including illustrative examples for each entry.

[4]"Patrick Wiles, a vice president of First Pioneer Farm Credit in Riverhead, said the 'ballpark figure' for prime vineyard land on the North Fork is $50,000 to $60,000 an acre, 'assuming the development rights have been sold.'"

headline: "Senator Jim Bunning Throws Beanball at America's Unemployed" – Mason Lerner, The Faster Times, 26 February 2010.

"For a listener who last heard the New Haven Symphony in the mid-60's, in a game but scrappy performance of Britten's War Requiem, its concert on Friday evening was a happy surprise.

[13]"Brand new ball game: New peanut program brings change" — Paul L. Hollis, Southwest Farm Press, 21 March 2002.

"The Washington Times' George Archibald reports that Gerald A. Reynolds, assistant secretary for civil rights in the Department of Education, has sent a long overdue brush-back letter to college and university officials concerning their odious and oppressive campus speech codes".

"Kinsley, who does come off as the stereotypical Los Angeles-hating East Coast wonk, said recently that because L.A. is the second biggest city in the country, 'it's really bush league to care about where the writers are from.

In baseball a cleanup hitter is the fourth man in the batting order, typically a slugger who is expected to clear the bases by driving other runners home to score runs.

[29] "Arson investigators sifted through the rubble of an Airdrie Stud barn today, but failed to determine the cause of a fire that killed 15 thoroughbred broodmares and yearlings Saturday night.

"The city's three mayoral candidates finished Wednesday's political double header with a debate at First Congregational United Church for Christ.

...The evening debate did not differ greatly from the luncheon forum that local Rotarians and Kiwanians hosted earlier in the day" — Andrew Edwards, Contra Costa Times, 21 October 2009[35]To be near the end of a competition and have just one last chance to succeed.

"Tellem weighed in with a thoughtful back-page article in this Sunday's New York Times regarding the recent Congressional and mainstream media grandstanding over steroids".

A home run is automatically scored when a batter strikes the ball with such force as to hit it out of the stadium or playing field.

"Kay told CNN he is worried because he's hearing some of the same signals about Iran and its nuclear program that were heard as the Bush administration made its case for the war in Iraq.

[70]"The decision to place Ms. Obama centre stage in Denver is something of a gamble; rarely have the spouses of presidential candidates played leadoff hitter in such a high-stakes political exercise".

[72] "Depp's performance came out of left field in The Curse of the Black Pearl; nobody had ever thought of channeling Keith Richards and Pepé Le Pew before".

And they're misleading investors again" — Brit Ryle, Taipan Financial News, 13 December 2005.A large group of talented individuals or valuable assets.

— Andrew Leonard, Salon.com, 10 March 2008.Headline: "Here's The Murderers' Row Of Talent Bill Simmons Recruited For His New Site" — Noah Davis, Business Insider, 2 June 2011.

[77] "'We're in the late innings for U.S. small-cap stocks,'" said Richard Bernstein, chief investment strategist at Merrill Lynch & Co." – Wall Street Journal, 31 December 2007.

Hull, Murphy, Woodring, Edison and Ickes were at hand) had been caught off-base with the rest of the world by the Hitler-Stalin deal, the sudden push for Poland".

– A Better Blogsite, 1 February 2007[86]In baseball, a manager may adopt a strategy of moving runners along one base at a time rather than emphasizing power hitting and high-scoring innings.

The Oxford English Dictionary gives the first non-baseball use in 1918, from sports columnist and short-story writer Ring Lardner:[91] "He had the thing running, with a piece of common binding twine pinch-hitting for the cord."

[95] "'Eight U.S. attorneys who did not play ball with the political agenda of this administration were dropped from the team,' said Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois".

"To deal with frustration among holiday shoppers hunting for its Wii game console, Nintendo Co. and retailer GameStop Corp. are launching a rain check program".

Rather, he's more of a 'relief pitcher' with the chops to push the District's business goals, he said, after council member Harry Thomas Jr. relinquished control of the Committee on Economic Development while he fights a lawsuit accusing him of taking public funds for personal use".—The Washington Times, 9 June 2011.

Online Etymology Dictionary attributes the "loud squabble on the field" usage to broadcaster Garry Schumacher in 1938,[105] while OED and CDS both credit sportscaster Red Barber at a baseball game in 1943.

"And now, as we enter not only the best season for stocks in the calendar year, but also the very best three quarters in the four-year election cycle, you'd think you should just sit back and enjoy the ride, right?

"With the duration [of bonds] tailwind on the wane, investors must literally scour the globe for opportunities, seeking coins and jewels rather than treasure chests.

An article titled "Hatteras Plans Switch-Hitting Ethernet" discusses a network switch that can operate either on fiber optic or copper wiring.

President Obama is returning tomorrow for his third visit in less than a month, bringing the increasingly familiar swirl of traffic – and buckraking – that surrounds presidential campaigns".headline: "Cosmic Triple-Play: Asteroid Flyby, Fireball over Utah, Meteor Shower" – Charles Q. Choi, SPACE.com, 18 November 2009.