# Your favorite official sports terminology **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 18, 2001, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-official-sports-terminology/72933 "2001-07-18T15:04:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![silent\_rob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@silent\_rob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silent_rob)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2001, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-official-sports-terminology/72933/21 "2001-07-19T06:00:02Z")
_ **Tenacious Defense** _, but mainly because Jack Black’s band _Tenacious D_ is named after it. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2001, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-official-sports-terminology/72933/22 "2001-07-19T06:35:16Z")
According to the “Dickson Baseball Dictionary”, “chin music” first appears in print in conjunction with baseball in 1875. Others say it appeared in conjunction with other sports as early as 1836. However the original meaning of “chin music” was just “shouting”. As for my favorite terms, I like two penalties which are rarely called anymore in football: Helping the runner Interlocked interference ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2001, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-official-sports-terminology/72933/23 "2001-07-19T07:49:48Z")
Two from Japanese baseball: **Dead ball** - When the batter is hit by a pitch. **Sayonara Home Run** - The game-winning homer. Perfectly descriptive. –sublight. ---
**Author:** ![Space\_Coyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/977dab/32.png) [@Space\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Space_Coyote)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2001, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-official-sports-terminology/72933/24 "2001-07-19T08:26:43Z")
Football: Shanks the post! Yes, thats really all I have to add. 9 posts in over 18 months as a member…where do I get my award anyway? ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2001, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-official-sports-terminology/72933/25 "2001-07-19T10:10:29Z")
Football (soccer): when a player **nutmegs** another player (meaning, he passes the ball between the legs of an opposition player). There’s also a **donkey kick** , which was briefly made famous by (IIRC) a Coventry City player in the 1970s - the ball was flicked up backwards from a free-kick, then volleyed home. We also have Rene Higuita’s **scorpion** , where the eccentric Colombian 'keeper started a whole new trend for playground injuries by volleying a ball clear by leaping and arching his legs back behind him like a scorpion’s tail. ---
**Author:** ![bunnymom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c4cdca/32.png) [@bunnymom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bunnymom)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2001, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-official-sports-terminology/72933/26 "2001-07-19T10:25:57Z")
Gap integrity. Heard it used by Madden to describe the Cowboys last year, as in “These guys need to keep up their gap integrity.” or, " They’re losing gap integrity". I love this term. It is now my universal term for something or someone that is not functioning properly. “Babe, um, my right front tire seems to be losing gap integrity…” My friend’s nutso mom has already lost _her_ gap integrity. Man, I love Madden. How much longer til football season? [Edited by Czarcasm on 07-19-2001 at 07:29 AM] ---
**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:** [July 19, 2001, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-official-sports-terminology/72933/27 "2001-07-19T12:40:48Z")
**passed ball** It just sounds painful. **bang-bang play** I get uncomfortable realizing that it usually involves at least three guys. I giggled out loud the first time I heard a player described as having **a cannon** without the more usual specification _for an arm_. “And as I’m sure the third-base coach knows, Andruw Jones has a cannon out there in center field.” The question is, do the women in the bleachers know? ---
**Author:** ![pldennison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2001, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-official-sports-terminology/72933/28 "2001-07-19T13:08:17Z")
Even though I’m not a hockey fan, I always thought the term “power play” had a nice ring to it. ---
**Author:** ![Acco40](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/58956e/32.png) [@Acco40](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acco40)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2001, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-official-sports-terminology/72933/29 "2001-07-19T13:53:22Z")
They don’t use it as often as they did before, but I haven’t seen a good “FOREARM SHIVER” delivered in American football in some time… they don’t block like they used to. “UNNECCESARY ROUGHNESS” is a good one too, as a couple of people have mentioned before. “Keep it between the whistles, buck-o’s.” Also, I’ve always wondered this, and if some soccer fanatics can qualify this for me: When the ball goes between an opponent’s legs and results in a goal is that called “NUTMEG”? I swear I’ve heard this term more than once when this example of ineffective defending is demonstrated in play… or am I just hungry? ---
**Author:** ![Acco40](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/58956e/32.png) [@Acco40](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acco40)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2001, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-official-sports-terminology/72933/30 "2001-07-19T13:59:27Z")
MattK, I just read your earlier post! Good, I was not going crazy… but I am hungry. “MMMMMMMMMMMm, nutmeg.” ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2001, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-official-sports-terminology/72933/31 "2001-07-19T18:25:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by mayberrydan \* > \*\*Rugby - Try > -appears to be the wrong tense to me, they have already succeeded(hate spelling that word). > Tennis - Love > -find it interesting because, quite honestly, I don’t know where it came from > Golf - worm burner > - duck hook > -just neat is all. \*\* From the master: [Why is tennis scoring so weird?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_304a.html) At least two ballplayers came up with a language all their own: Dizzy Dean and Dennis Eckersly. IIRC, Eckersley originated “paint the corner”. My personal favorite is the Texas hop (a ground ball that takes a high hop off of home plate). ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2001, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-official-sports-terminology/72933/32 "2001-07-19T18:43:24Z")
**iampunha,** If you don’t like dribbling in basketball then you probably really hate it when someone gets called for a **double dribble.** 🙂 And then there’s basketball’s **triple-double**. Huh? As for **chin music** , mr. romans and I were talking about that last night and he says the first he’d heard it was from Jim Mudcat Grant back in the early 60s. Of course mr. romans was born in 1955, so he wouldn’t know about anything farther back than that :). My dictionary at home says chin music means “to gossip.” **Munch** , we saw that football game where the ref called unnecessary roughness and then said, “[The offending player] had him on the ground and was giving him the business!” That’s ended up on some highlight reels, I’ve laughed myself silly every time I’ve seen it. ---
**Author:** ![lurkernomore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@lurkernomore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lurkernomore)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2001, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-official-sports-terminology/72933/33 "2001-07-19T18:51:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Munch \* > \*\*I remember a college football game broadcast a few years ago, wherein the ref described unneccessary roughness as “Giving him the business.” > > I don’t recall if it was in the endzone or not… \*\* Munch, It wasn’t a college game. It was a Jets-Bills game a few years ago. Marty Lyons, Jet DE, had just tackled Bills QB Jim Kelly. Lyons was lying on top of him, when Kelly allegedly stuck his fingers through Lyons’ mask and poked him in the eye. Lyons proceeded to whale on Kelly. The ref said “He had the quarterback on the ground and was giving him the business down there.” Laughed my ass off. [sub] but it grew back fatter than ever [/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Winnowill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/4491bb/32.png) [@Winnowill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winnowill)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2001, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-official-sports-terminology/72933/34 "2001-07-19T19:08:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Crunchy Frog \* > \*\*What I think is fun is watching a baseball game on TV and hearing the announcer say something along the lines of, “That pitch goes high and away. The batter now has 3 balls on him.” > > Three?! No wonder he doesn’t steal many bases. \*\* **Crunchy** , this reminds me of my all-time fave baseball joke, involving a Scotsman learning how the game is played. Since I don’t want to hijack the thread, (and I don’t want to start a whole new thread just for it) e-mail me if you want to “hear” it! The American equivalent of the Sayonara Home Run is the Walk-Off Homer. Whenever I hear that, it sounds to me as though the hitter watched the ball go into the seats, then went back to the dugout and sat down rather than rounding the bases. Which, of course, would have resulted in an out rather than ending the game. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2001, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-official-sports-terminology/72933/35 "2001-07-19T19:38:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by wolfman \* > \*\*In football, it is illegal to jump and pish off of the back of one of your teammates to get higher to block a field goal. It’s really rare that it ever gets called, and I have no idea what the official penalty is, and I don’t think the refs do either cause they always call it something different, which is funny as hell. > > So far I have seen the refs give the call as > “Running and Jumping” -gave me visions of my mom out reffing a game ‘if you don’t stop all that running and jumping we’re going home’. > “Illegally aiding a jumper”- sounds like something involving funneled money and a suicide. > “jumping with assistance”- a new feel-good government program. \*\* **Wolfman** , that’s unusual. I guess the refs have to explain that to the crowd & TV audience, but that kick-block is technically an Illegal Procedure penalty. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2001, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-official-sports-terminology/72933/36 "2001-07-19T20:42:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jadailey \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by Crunchy Frog \* > > \*\*What I think is fun is watching a baseball game on TV and hearing the announcer say something along the lines of, “That pitch goes high and away. The batter now has 3 balls on him.” > > > > Three?! No wonder he doesn’t steal many bases. \*\* > > **Crunchy** , this reminds me of my all-time fave baseball joke, involving a Scotsman learning how the game is played. Since I don’t want to hijack the thread, (and I don’t want to start a whole new thread just for it) e-mail me if you want to “hear” it! > \*\* “Walk with pride, man! Walk with pride!” ---
**Author:** ![ellis555](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e36b37/32.png) [@ellis555](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ellis555)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2001, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-official-sports-terminology/72933/37 "2001-07-20T03:08:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by mayberrydan \* > \*\*Rugby - Try > -appears to be the wrong tense to me, they have already succeeded(hate spelling that word). > \*\* “Try” originally was the proper tense. You got the ball over the line. Good for you. Now you get to try to kick a goal and score some points. Miss the kick? Too bad - no points for you. -ellis ---
**Author:** ![Winnowill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/4491bb/32.png) [@Winnowill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winnowill)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2001, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-official-sports-terminology/72933/38 "2001-07-20T15:49:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Snooooopy \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by jadailey \* > > **Crunchy** , this reminds me of my all-time fave baseball joke, involving a Scotsman learning how the game is played. Since I don’t want to hijack the thread, (and I don’t want to start a whole new thread just for it) e-mail me if you want to “hear” it! > > \*\* > > “Walk with pride, man! Walk with pride!” \*\* That be the one. Watching the Tribe beat up on the White Sox last night - heard two more that I’d forgotten about: “Pulled the string” = couldn’t hold up on the pitch “Can of corn” = an easy catch. ---
**Author:** ![drm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e57/32.png) [@drm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drm)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2001, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-official-sports-terminology/72933/39 "2001-07-20T15:58:06Z")
Thanks man…like the term even more now… ---
**Author:** ![DJScherr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@DJScherr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DJScherr)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2001, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-official-sports-terminology/72933/40 "2001-07-20T21:07:40Z")
I always liked the term ‘halftime hooter’ used in rugby when the 40 minute horn goes off (play doesn’t stop till it goes out of bounds or for a penalty) so that players know to keep it in bounds and be good if they wanna score. I just like saying it ‘halftime hooter’ hehe [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-official-sports-terminology/72933.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-official-sports-terminology/72933.md?page=3)