Brought to mind by this thread.
I’m not a baseball fan. But, of course, you can’t avoid a certain amount of exposure to the sport and its particular colloquialisms.
I’ve always been curious about the ‘hot stove’ as referring to, I think, off-season baseball talk. I had originally thought it was something particular to this area/team (Cincinnati), but here it is on the Dope, being used in a non-market specific fashion.
What’s the history/etymology/explanation of this term?
I was wondering about that too. I never heard the term before reading the title of that thread, but just today I saw the term used elsewhere.
(There’s a ‘Hot Stove and Wine Bar’ restaurant that advertises in Mississauga, but that’s different, I think.)
Hot stove relates to Baseball being the summer sport and quite old. When the season is over, it is time for the fans to gather around the hot stove (as in wood or coal stove) and talk baseball. After all, if the teams are not playing, it is no reason to stop talking about baseball and what teams should do.
I do not know the etymology of the phrase, but it appears to be quite old. I have read a baseball book about the old game written in 1918 that referred to the Hot-Stove.
Jim {I will now need to research this if no one comes in with the origin}
I’ve always thought that it’s because all this activity takes places in the winter – around a hot stove, so to speak. And that the discussion among the fans might similarly take place in bullshit sessions around a hot stove.
Slight hijack: when Lincoln was being warned not to appoint the crooked Pennsylvania politican Simon Cameron to his Cabinet, he asked just how crooked Cameron was. The person warning him said, thoughtfully, 'Well, he probably wouldn’t steal a hot stove."
Lincoln appointed him as Secretary of War anyway. He was a disaster and eventually got fired.
I believe it refers to the days when the local barbershop or hardware store had a prominent pot-bellied stove that served as a gathering place where inevitable discussions about baseball took place. Baseball truly was the “national sport” in those days, and speculation regarding the upcoming season was an excellent way to pass a cold winter afternoon sitting around the “hot stove” with your neighbors.
Previous thread on the Hot Stove, complete with research by samclem, a bump after two years, discussion of how the phrase is used differently in Canada, and inane commentary from yours truly.
Cool, good link Freddy, saves me some research that I am not very good at. So **samclem ** found an older reference then my 1918 baseball book. I am not at all surprised.
Jim