A column that packs a punch

Now that the Super Bowl is on the horizon, it seems like a good time to look into the origin of some unusual sports phrases and terms, and how some of these have worked their way into everyday language.

My friend and co-worker, and noted local columnist, Duane Sherrill tossed one my way recently amid a discussion of one his favorite subjects, professional wrestling.

?Haymaker,? Mr. Sherrill spouted out on the way to J?s for lunch. ?Hey Charlie, where does that come from??

Well Duane, my research came up with two plausible origins for this term, which describes a particularly powerful boxing punch. One source seems to believe the term was coined because the haymaker itself physically mimics the motion of cutting hay with a scythe. Another source quotes ?Listening to American? by Stuart Berg Flexner, which claims, ?haymaker, for a knockout punch, appeared in 1912, perhaps from the 1880 ?hit the hay,? which, as we all know, means ?go to sleep.?

Well, it makes good sense, since that result is generally the aim of that particular boxing move.

Another boxing conundrum for me as a child was why they called it a boxing ring when it is actually square. Well, one of the benefits of managing to survive into the Internet age is being able to find out some answers to questions like that one.

My research reveals that the term ?ring? came from the very early age of boxing when contests were actually fought in a roughly drawn circle on the ground. The name ring continued with the Jack Broughton rules (1743) specifying a small circle in the center of the fight area where the boxers met at the beginning of each round. Apparently the first square ring, how?s that for an oxymoron, was introduced by the Pugilistic Society in 1838. The ring was specified as 24 feet square and was bound by two ropes, pretty much the boxing ring we are familiar with today.

Of course, boxing isn?t the only sport with unusual phrases and terms. Baseball has generated a wide variety of colorful terms. I ran up on one of these while reading a mystery where the plot had to do with baseball. One character referred to a particularly easy catch during a game as a ?can of corn.? Naturally, being the curious person I am, I decided to look this up, and got my answer at one of my favorite Web sites, The Word Detective, which referenced Paul Dickson?s ?New Dickson Baseball Dictionary,? published by Harcourt Brace.

Of course, ?can of corn? is a perfect example of just how weird baseball lingo can get. According to Mr. Dickson, ?can of corn? was first used back in 1896 to describe a fly ball hit so high that the fielder has time to stand directly under the falling ball. The standard theory on this traces the term back to old-fashioned grocery stores, where canned goods were stored on high shelves and pulled down with a long pole. An experienced store clerk would have no trouble catching the can, since it was under his control and high enough to give him time to prepare to catch it, hence the term.

That article led me to another baseball term I found quite interesting. Apparently baseball enthusiasts refer to catcher?s gear as ?the tools of ignorance,? a long-standing slang term for the catcher?s mask, chest protector and other equipment worn by catchers. Now this one seems to be pretty straightforward, based on the perception that catching is an unpleasant, potentially dangerous and often unappreciated position to play, and thus one that would be avoided by any intelligent player.

Though the phrase first appeared in print in 1937, and although accounts of its origin vary, they all seem to agree on one point: ?tools of ignorance? was coined by a catcher.

Makes sense to me.

Charlie Johnson is news editor of the Standard. He can be reached at 473-2191.