The Baseball Thesaurus

Sluggers deposit a Ballantine Blast in the nosebleeds. The top of the lineup sets the table for the heart of the order. Corner infielders guard the line. A lumberjack with a bad wheel staggers down the line while a glovesman flashes leather. Baseball is a sport with its own lingo and jargon -- a colorful patois that's developed over the years and millions of games. In this fascinating compendium of baseball terms, Jesse Goldberg-Strassler -- broadcaster, storyteller, talker, voice -- explains what baseball terms mean and how they came to be. Whether it's Red Barber talking about the pea patch or Ernie Harwell discussing no-hitters, the language of America s Pastime is brilliantly captured by Goldberg-Strassler. Who should read The Baseball Thesaurus? It s for the media linguist whose job relies upon baseball jargon, the radio listener, the blog reader, the talk-show caller, the minor-league diehard, the Strat-O-Matic connoisseur, the seventh-inning stretcher, the stereotype breaker, the crank, the postgame fireworks enthusiast, the t-ball coach, the seamhead, the baseball Annie, the hot-stove moper, the bandwagoner, the purist, the casual rooter who enjoys a quick tidbit and has no need to attend both games of a doubleheader, and the fan who takes pride in scoring the game and teaching the tradition to others.