I heard a song by the British band the Libertines on the radio, and it mentioned the term “baseball cap”. It suprised me the British would refer to baseball when the sport is so little followed there. I also started thinking about other baseball inspired slang such as struck out (failed), got to first/second/third base (seducing a woman), pinch hit (took somebody’s place on short notice). Are those terms much used in English speaking countries outside N. Am? Are there any cricket/soccer/rugby terms used in everyday speech in these countries?
‘Baseball cap’ is the universal way we refer to the headgear in question - there’s little connection between it and its sporting origins.
However, there’s loads of homegrown terms. One can ‘kick off’ with an opening statement or speech, and if an argument (or fight) breaks out then it’s ‘all kicking off’. There’s a good explanation of a few cricket ones here. From rugby, ‘maul’ and ‘scrum’ both get used to mean a rowdy crush of people.