# The old ball game **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 22, 2014, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-ball-game/691396 "2014-06-22T23:05:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2014, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-ball-game/691396/1 "2014-06-22T23:05:30Z")
(I didn’t put this in Game Room because it’s more of a general musing than a serious discussion topic). Lots of field/court games involve a ball. Tennis, racquetball, football, water polo, volleyball, basketball. (A few notable exceptions such as frisbee golf, ice hockey.) So why is only baseball referred to as a “ball game”? You never see people on the 18th green saying, “That was a hell of a ball game.” Announcers at Wimbledon don’t say, “This is the most exciting ball game we’ve seen in months.” But baseball is always going out to the old ball game. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2014, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-ball-game/691396/2 "2014-06-22T23:26:15Z")
It helps that the name includes the word “ball,” which tennis and golf do not. “Ballgame” is an understandable abbreviation of “baseball game,” but it would not be so for a tennis match. Secondly, baseball is simply older than the other sports that do use the word “ball.” Baseball was a well established professional sports enterprise when basketball, volleyball and raquetball were INVENTED, and football as it presently exists (in the USA) developed after baseball, too. So baseball got the name first. ---
**Author:** ![pojimba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bcef8e/32.png) [@pojimba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pojimba)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2014, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-ball-game/691396/3 "2014-06-22T23:35:11Z")
I don’t think it’s unusual to hear of a basketball game being referred to that way. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2014, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-ball-game/691396/4 "2014-06-22T23:51:27Z")
I more often hear of basketball being referred to as a b-ball game. That’s a little strange as baseball is also a b-ball. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2014, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-ball-game/691396/5 "2014-06-22T23:57:34Z")
> [@pojimba](#): > > I don’t think it’s unusual to hear of a basketball game being referred to that way. Give me some examples. I think basketball games referred to in that way would be unusual. ---
**Author:** ![Pixel\_Dent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@Pixel\_Dent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixel_Dent)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-ball-game/691396/6 "2014-06-23T10:19:05Z")
Well playing basketball is “ballin.” When he was the football coach at Florida Steve Spurrier was referred to as “The Old Ball Coach.” ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-ball-game/691396/7 "2014-06-23T12:14:57Z")
Not universal by any stretch, but Jeff Fisher always referred to a Titans football game as a “ballgame” in any context where “game” might have been uttered by somebody else. Just sayin’. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-ball-game/691396/8 "2014-06-23T12:50:30Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > Give me some examples. I think basketball games referred to in that way would be unusual. It doesn’t sound that odd to my ears. [Here’s a recent example](http://m.alligator.org/sports/basketball_-_women/article_985b5ff4-a276-11e3-a0dd-0019bb2963f4.html?mode=jqm) of it being used in speech (as parts of quotes in the story.) There are three uses of “ballgame” in that story, from two different people. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-old-ball-game/691396/9 "2014-06-23T12:55:10Z")
[Here’s one from January.](http://highschoolsports.al.com/news/article/-1793218088334333978/boys-basketball-no-2-theodore-uses-fourth-quarter-comeback-to-stop-daphne-62-56-photos/) [Here’s one from March](http://www.courier-journal.com/story/sports/college/louisville/2014/03/24/louisville-women-tasked-host-iowa-second-round/6833859/). [Here’s another on a messageboard in March](http://indianabasketballdigest.com/index.php/topic/9317-clay-city-loses/) Just search for “great ballgame” and “basketball” and you’ll find tons of examples. I used the phrase “great ballgame” because “ballgame” on its own was giving me generic “basketball is a ball game” type of results.