# origins of "hot stove" in reference to baseball? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 20, 2002, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-hot-stove-in-reference-to-baseball/144087 "2002-12-20T19:28:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mouthbreather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a698b9/32.png) [@mouthbreather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mouthbreather)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2002, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-hot-stove-in-reference-to-baseball/144087/1 "2002-12-20T19:28:29Z")
Anything having to do with a baseball discussion or news I’m seeing called “Hot Stove Talk” or the “Hot Stove Report”. Anyone know how this came to be? Some simple googling yielded no help. Thanks in advance. ---
**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:** [December 20, 2002, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-hot-stove-in-reference-to-baseball/144087/2 "2002-12-20T19:31:15Z")
It’s the talking you do around a hot stove all winter until spring. ---
**Author:** ![Rube\_E.Tewesday](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f0a364/32.png) [@Rube\_E.Tewesday](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rube_E.Tewesday)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2002, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-hot-stove-in-reference-to-baseball/144087/3 "2002-12-20T19:33:24Z")
Imagine, in the days before central heating, a bunch of fans, unable to watch a game in winter, sitting around the pot belly stove at the general store, eating crackers and arguing about Ty Cobb versus Babe Ruth. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2002, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-hot-stove-in-reference-to-baseball/144087/4 "2002-12-20T21:03:59Z")
It was called the Hot Stove League, but what Rube says is exactly how I have always pictured it, the pot belly stove in the general store. Doubtless a Norman Rockwell painting. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2002, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-hot-stove-in-reference-to-baseball/144087/5 "2002-12-21T02:10:44Z")
It appears in print in English from 1912, in reference to baseball. There is a single cite from 1886 which says “the sleighing has gone, and most of the trotting is done around the hot stove at present.” The baseball quote from 1912 is very explicit that it refers to sitting around in the winter talking sports. Sitting around a hot stove. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2004, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-hot-stove-in-reference-to-baseball/144087/6 "2004-11-09T14:32:34Z")
Was going to start a thread asking this question, but did a search and found this thread. I understand the origin of the phrase, vis a vis standing around a hot stove, but has the phrase been in active use since the early 1900’s? I don’t remember hearing reference to it until much more recently - say the mid '90’s. There are a few phrases like this, that either were old and got revived, or just kinds of happened and are treated like they have always been there. “March Madness” “The Curse of the Bambino” (now retired) “Going Yard/Jacking One/etc.” all feel like they have become more commonly used in the past few years - is the same true with “Hot Stove”? And for that matter - does Hot Stove refer to anything specific, or just trades and other back-office machinations taking place during the offseason? ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2004, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-hot-stove-in-reference-to-baseball/144087/7 "2004-11-09T15:03:46Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > I understand the origin of the phrase, vis a vis standing around a hot stove, but has the phrase been in active use since the early 1900’s? I don’t remember hearing reference to it until much more recently - say the mid '90’s. Certainly. St. Louis Cardinals fans will recall it being used by both Harry Caray and Jack Buck, and it’s been a favorite expression of Mike Shannon since he began broadcasting in the early 1970s. I have no doubt the expression has been in more or less continuous use. ---
**Author:** ![jacquilynne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/67e7ee/32.png) [@jacquilynne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jacquilynne)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2004, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-hot-stove-in-reference-to-baseball/144087/8 "2004-11-09T15:39:24Z")
Hrmm, to throw a slight wrinkle into this, it’s not strictly a baseball thing, at least not anymore. Hockey Night in Canada telecasts (you know, when there’s hockey) have an intermission feature called the Satellite Hot Stove - which is basically a bunch of hockey writers blah blah blahing about things. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2004, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-hot-stove-in-reference-to-baseball/144087/9 "2004-11-09T16:01:38Z")
> [@jacquilynne](#): > > Hrmm, to throw a slight wrinkle into this, it’s not strictly a baseball thing, at least not anymore. Hockey Night in Canada telecasts (you know, when there’s hockey) have an intermission feature called the Satellite Hot Stove - which is basically a bunch of hockey writers blah blah blahing about things. Interesting. It of course doesn’t make a lot of sense in hockey (or basketball) since it refers to discussion during the off-season. You’re not likely to be sitting around a hot stove during the hockey off season. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2004, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-hot-stove-in-reference-to-baseball/144087/10 "2004-11-09T16:26:13Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Interesting. It of course doesn’t make a lot of sense in hockey (or basketball) since it refers to discussion during the off-season. You’re not likely to be sitting around a hot stove during the hockey off season. No, but you would during the season. After a game of hockey on a frozen outdoor rink on a cold winter’s day, you’re glad of the chance to go inside the little hut that was always there by the rink, sit around the hot stove that was always in the hut, and talk about the game you just played while you change out of your skates. To me, the phrase “hot stove” always referred to a discussion of a hockey game–indeed, Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens had a bar/restaurant in it called, appropriately enough, the Hot Stove Lounge. During the off-season, I would imagine most hockey discussions take place on the golf course. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2004, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-hot-stove-in-reference-to-baseball/144087/11 "2004-11-10T01:39:14Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Certainly. St. Louis Cardinals fans will recall it being used by both Harry Caray and Jack Buck . . . Indeed! During his White Sox days, Harry even had an off-season TV program called “Harry Caray’s Hot Stove League”. Of course, this was during an era when February sports alternatives consisted mostly of celebrity pro-am refriferator carrying contests. When the Black Sox scandal broke just before the end of the 1920 season, the Chicago _Herald-Examiner_, looking ahead to discussion of the scandal during the coming off-season, published the following (as quoted in _Eight Men Out_): The Hot Stove League has opened Ahead of time this year; 'Twill be the hottest season Of all its long career. (This is a pretty lame rhyme, since a league doesn’t really have a “career”, but you get the idea.) > [@Spoons](#): > > To me, the phrase “hot stove” always referred to a discussion of a hockey game–indeed, Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens had a bar/restaurant in it called, appropriately enough, the Hot Stove Lounge. You have no idea how jarring this is to American ears. The concept of _immediate post-game discussion_ at a Hot Stove session . . . is just a total disconnect. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2004, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-hot-stove-in-reference-to-baseball/144087/12 "2004-11-10T16:49:53Z")
> [@Freddy the Pig](#): > > You have no idea how jarring this is to American ears. The concept of _immediate post-game discussion_ at a Hot Stove session . . . is just a total disconnect. It works both ways–using “hot stove” in reference to baseball seems jarring to me. In fact, until I saw this thread, I had no idea that the phrase ever referred to baseball. Perhaps Toronto Blue Jays and Montreal Expos commentators and sportswriters avoided it so as not to confuse the Canadian public with a phrase it would associate more with hockey? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2004, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-hot-stove-in-reference-to-baseball/144087/13 "2004-11-10T17:12:30Z")
“Hot stove league” was in common baseball parlance in the 50s and 60s, and I have no doubt it was used consistently previous to that. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2004, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-hot-stove-in-reference-to-baseball/144087/14 "2004-11-11T01:54:43Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck] “Hot stove league” was in common baseball parlance in the 50s and 60s, and I have no doubt it was used consistently previous to that The newspaper cites referring to baseball in the US from the 1920’s are numerous.