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Vintage-Rules Baseball: The Lingo

The game in the 1800s included its own vocabulary

Vintage-rules baseball is laden with lingo and phrases not common to today’s game, including:

Ace or tally: crossing home plate for a run

Baller, ballist: a player

Basetender: an infielder

Bowler, hurler, thrower: the pitcher

Bug bruiser: a hard-hit grounder

Daisy cutter: a hard-hit grounder

Dew drop: a slowly pitched ball

Dish: home plate

Foul tic: a foul ball

Four baser: a home run

Huzzah!: an interjection synonymous with “Hooray!”

Leg it: to run swiftly

Match: a single game

Muff or duff: a misplayed ball, error

Player dead: an out

Show a little ginger: a phrase used to encourage players to play harder

Sky scraper: a popup or fly ball

Stinger: a hard-hit ball

Stir your stumps: a phrase used to encourage players to hustle

Striker: the batter

Striker to the line: batter up

Talleykeeper: scorekeeper

Three hands dead: when a team gets three outs and the side is retired

Whitewash: when a team is held scoreless for a match or an at-bat