# Baseball metaphors for sex - what do other countries use? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 14, 2011, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-metaphors-for-sex-what-do-other-countries-use/588979 "2011-07-14T05:07:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-metaphors-for-sex-what-do-other-countries-use/588979/21 "2011-07-14T16:34:56Z")
Baseball symbolism is not just about the bases. Pitching and Catching are accepted sexual terms too. And “striking out” is an all too commonly used term, as well. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-metaphors-for-sex-what-do-other-countries-use/588979/22 "2011-07-14T16:50:36Z")
The game is nothing but sexual innuendo: backdoor slider, bag, ball, caught looking, chin music, choke up, dish, donut, fair territory, force out, gap, high and tight, moon shot, mound, rubber, squeeze, sweet spot, switch hitter ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-metaphors-for-sex-what-do-other-countries-use/588979/23 "2011-07-14T16:52:04Z")
… double header, double play, triple play, rushing the mound … ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-metaphors-for-sex-what-do-other-countries-use/588979/24 "2011-07-14T17:07:46Z")
23rd century Russians still reference baseball. _ **Vir:** There were other women, but I never got past one. **Ivanova:** You mean first base. **Vir:** No, no, I mean one. You see, we have six a … we have six, you see, and each one is a different level of intimacy and pleasure. So, you know, first you have one, and that’s naa-naa. Then there’s two … and by the time you get to five it’s … **Ivanova:** Interrupting Vir, I got it, I got it. I got it. I got it. I don’t know what to tell you, Vir. I’ve never really gotten this whole relationship thing down myself so I’m the last person in the world who should be giving advice on … this sort of thing. All I can say is that enthusiasm, sincerity, genuine compassion, and humor can carry you through any … lack of … prior experience with … high numerical value. **Vir:** Wow, I’m gonna remember that. Thank you, thank you. **Ivanova** [mouths as he leaves]: SIX!_ ---
**Author:** ![polar\_bear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ec9cab/32.png) [@polar\_bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/polar_bear)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-metaphors-for-sex-what-do-other-countries-use/588979/25 "2011-07-14T17:27:41Z")
I honestly don’t think we had any consistent methapors. It was pretty much: Did you fuck her yet, nah just fingered her a bit… we’re a direct lot, us Dutch. We do have about a million verbs that mean fucking though. I’m sure one of the other Dutch dopers will be here with a whole slur of metaphors I’d totally forgotten. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-metaphors-for-sex-what-do-other-countries-use/588979/26 "2011-07-14T17:52:26Z")
Sticking your finger in the dyke? ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-metaphors-for-sex-what-do-other-countries-use/588979/27 "2011-07-14T18:02:08Z")
According to Robin Schobosky, a fictional Canadian on How I Met Your Mother, they (ie Canadians) use a hockey analogy (I’m sure Canadians don’t, but the writers love to make Canada jokes through her character.) According to her, the blue line is kissing, the red line is getting naked, and “in the crease” speaks for itself. She never said explicitly what in the crease means, but I’d like to think that it’s third base/genital fondling, and actual sex would be a goal. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-metaphors-for-sex-what-do-other-countries-use/588979/28 "2011-07-14T19:44:22Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > To hopefully clarify more than that XKCD does: If one kisses a member of the opposite sex, one is said to have made it to first base. If there is fondling of breasts, that’s second base. Third base is non-intercourse contact with genitals, and a home run is full-on sex (of course, there is considerable variation in the precise meaning of all of these but the home run, but that’s the general idea). The metaphor can of course be extended, but most extensions of the metaphor, you’re going to just have to explain your literal meaning anyway (the extended metaphors in the XKCD strip are in no way standard). Your heterosexism is showing here. The qualification _" a member of the opposite sex"_ is unneeded, ans wrong. Pretty much the same terms are used by GLBT kids also. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-metaphors-for-sex-what-do-other-countries-use/588979/29 "2011-07-14T20:03:46Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > Your heterosexism is showing here. > > The qualification _" a member of the opposite sex"_ is unneeded, ans wrong. Pretty much the same terms are used by GLBT kids also. What’s second base for gay men? Also, the baseball innuendo list is noticeably missing the \*squeeze \*and the _suicide squeeze_. I’d like to think a ground-ruled double has some meaning as well - like, your partner agreed to a home run, but then her dad showed up. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Librarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_librarian/32/402_2.png) [@The\_Librarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Librarian)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-metaphors-for-sex-what-do-other-countries-use/588979/30 "2011-07-14T20:06:12Z")
Isn’t the whole baseball thing something 'merican tv/film writers came up with to circumvent quite puritan rules about what you can and cannot say on TV? I mean ,when you are bragging to your friends IRL you can be a bit more descriptive than ‘3rd base’, no? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-metaphors-for-sex-what-do-other-countries-use/588979/31 "2011-07-14T20:24:12Z")
> [@The\_Librarian](#): > > Isn’t the whole baseball thing something 'merican tv/film writers came up with to circumvent quite puritan rules about what you can and cannot say on TV? > > I mean ,when you are bragging to your friends IRL you can be a bit more descriptive than ‘3rd base’, no? It’s more likely the terms were coined long before game existed. The game of baseball was created to form a context where sexual terminology was accepted as proper language in the Victorian era. Well, not more likely, so much as totally unlikely, but amusing to consider 🙂 Actually I think it is quite likely that the sexual code language developed along with the game. You can be much more descriptive, and explicit, bragging to your friends in some situations. But in ‘mixed company’ or within range of ‘tender ears’, the baseball terms probably replaced existing euphemisms which had grown stale or familiar. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-metaphors-for-sex-what-do-other-countries-use/588979/32 "2011-07-14T20:34:31Z")
> [@bouv](#): > > According to Robin Schobosky, a fictional Canadian on How I Met Your Mother, they (ie Canadians) use a hockey analogy (I’m sure Canadians don’t, but the writers love to make Canada jokes through her character.) > > According to her, the blue line is kissing, the red line is getting naked, and “in the crease” speaks for itself. > > She never said explicitly what in the crease means, but I’d like to think that it’s third base/genital fondling, and actual sex would be a goal. That’s “Robin Scherbatsky” and she’s played by Cobie Smulders, who is, in fact, Canadian. I have no idea if Canadians actually use hockey analogies IRL, though… ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-metaphors-for-sex-what-do-other-countries-use/588979/33 "2011-07-14T20:56:32Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > I have no idea if Canadians actually use hockey analogies IRL, though… There is the Two Handed Zamboni. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-metaphors-for-sex-what-do-other-countries-use/588979/34 "2011-07-14T21:32:01Z")
Hockey \*penalties \*seem more fertile ground for metaphor-reaping. Hooking, slashing, boarding, hand pass, cross-checking, high sticking, spearing… ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-metaphors-for-sex-what-do-other-countries-use/588979/35 "2011-07-14T21:38:45Z")
Does this mean I’m mistaken in my long held assumption that Brits mine their venerated English Tiddlywinks Association’s list of winking terminology for their vulgar sexual conquest euphemisms? I just took it for granted. **Winking Terms (from Wikepedia)** **Blitz** : an attempt to pot all six winks of a player’s colour early in the game **Bomb** : to send a wink at a pile, usually from distance, in the hope of significantly disturbing it **Boondock** : to free a squopped wink by sending it a long way away, leaving the squopping wink free in the battle area **Bristol** : a shot which moves a pile of two or more winks as a single unit; the shot is played by holding the squidger at a right angle to its normal plane **Carnovsky** (US)/ **Penhaligon** (UK): potting a wink from the baseline (i.e., from 3 feet away) **Cracker** : a simultaneous knock-off and squop, i.e. a shot which knocks one wink off the top of another while simultaneously squopping it **Crud** : a forceful shot whose purpose is to destroy a pile completely **Good shot** : named after John Good. The shot consists of playing a flat wink (one not involved in a pile) through a nearby pile with the intent of destroying the pile **Gromp** : an attempt to jump a pile onto another wink (usually with the squidger held in a conventional rather than Bristol fashion) **John Lennon memorial shot** : a simultaneous boondock and squop **Lunch** : to pot a squopped wink (usually belonging to an opponent) **Scrunge** (UK): to bounce out of the pot **Squidger** : the disc used to shoot a wink[[8]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiddlywinks#cite_note-7) **Squop** : to play a wink so that it comes to rest above another wink[[9]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiddlywinks#cite_note-8) **Sub** : to play a wink so that it ends up (unintentionally) under another wink (these make more sense when one remembers that the British are primarily a nation of fetishists and paraphiliacs). 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-metaphors-for-sex-what-do-other-countries-use/588979/36 "2011-07-14T22:36:07Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > I have no idea if Canadians actually use hockey analogies IRL, though… This American uses “pulling the goalie” to describe a certain unreliable method of birth control. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-metaphors-for-sex-what-do-other-countries-use/588979/37 "2011-07-14T22:46:59Z")
> [@](#): > > Your heterosexism is showing here. Probably true, and I apologize for that. But to be honest, I’m not sure the terminology is actually used by anyone but straight males. Do gay men, or women of any orientation, ever brag (or commiserate) about what base they’ve gotten to? As to the origin of the metaphor, I imagine it started with “scoring” for having sex. “Did you score with that chick last night?” “No, but I did make it to third base, if you know what I mean.”. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-metaphors-for-sex-what-do-other-countries-use/588979/38 "2011-07-15T01:47:39Z")
Wiki provides a page on [baseball metaphors for sex.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseball_metaphors_for_sex) ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-metaphors-for-sex-what-do-other-countries-use/588979/39 "2011-07-15T01:56:24Z")
I’ve heard from a (precocious?) 15-year old that the baseball thing was passé, and what to say is what f: French, finger, fellate, fuck. It is less iconic, more abstract, but does make up for it in building a child’s vocabulary (assuming that the etymology of the terms is not lost). ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-metaphors-for-sex-what-do-other-countries-use/588979/40 "2011-07-15T02:09:23Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > Your heterosexism is showing here. > > The qualification _" a member of the opposite sex"_ is unneeded, ans wrong. Pretty much the same terms are used by GLBT kids also. I’m so glad the new GLBT generation is more into sports terminology than when I was younger. We didn’t have pitchers and catchers; we had “active” or “passive” “french” or “greek” . . . which is actually more descriptive, when you think about it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-metaphors-for-sex-what-do-other-countries-use/588979.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-metaphors-for-sex-what-do-other-countries-use/588979.md?page=3)