Seems like a funny term! Maybe it means ‘check’ as-in ‘to counter’ or ‘resist’? - Jinx
Back in the early days of baseball, vouchers were given to spectators if the game was rained out so they could come another day.
The ticket still contained a rain check at the major league games I last attended.
My understanding of the rules is"
A game is completed if 5 innings have been completed and the visiting team leads at that time. No rain checks honored.
A game is completed if 4-1/2 innings have been completed and the home team is then ahead. No rain checks honored.
The term is also used to do with shopping and crap, I think that’s why she’s asking.
Yeah, it’s a specific term that has a general meaning: “We owe ya one.”
“Check” is used in the sense of “baggage check” or “coat check”–that is, a stub that you present to get something in return. The stub of a baseball ticket serves as a “rain check”–that is, if the game is rained out, you present the stub and the team will give you a ticket to another game.
A rained out baseball game is the “canonical” example, in American culture at least, of a situation where you have a ticket but can’t use it, and have to exchange it and come back later. By extension, therefore, the term applies to situations such as when a store runs out of a sale item, or your friend blows you off on a date, and so on and so forth.
Rain checks first appeared in the American lingo in 1884 according to the “Dickson Baseball Dictionary”.
The National League formalized their practice in 1890.
More precisely, a game is counted (and the rain checks invalid) if the game has gone at least five innings. In addition if the bottom fifth is not completed but cannot change the outcome, the game is also official. E.g the first batter hits a HR to break a tie and then it starts to pour.
In the good old days, they would call a game if it was raining after a half hour. Nowadays you hardly ever see a game called early, even if it would be official. Ever since the day I had to sit through 8 hours to finish a game, I have been disinclined to buy seats in advance or to go in doubtful weather.
The original rain check was an advance on the earlier policy, which was to issue ticket vouchers for another game to people as they left the ballpark. Kids would hang out near the park on potentially rainy days and mix with the exiting crowd to get their voucher.
Someone got the idea of printing the check on the ticket stub. Thus the rain checks were already distributed.