

In some ball games (for example American or Canadian football, rugby, etc.), the ball can be carried to advance toward a goal. carry the ball American football, rugby, etc: To take charge, to assume responsibility. The term is based on the practice of changing a play right before the play is run in American football. (Not the block and tackle system of cables and pulleys for lifting heavy loads.) C call an audible American football: To improvise often in the spur of the moment. In order to be successful in the game, a player must understand when to block and when to tackle.

In some ball games (for example American or Canadian football, rugby, etc.), blocking and tackling are basic components of the game.

When referenced, it's usually speaking to changing the behavior or going back to an earlier time when things were functional or building basic skills to ensure the success of various endeavors. block and tackle American football, rugby, etc: The basics, to get back to the basics. ī beat someone to the punch Boxing: to anticipate and potentially react to a move or action. Phrases from sports are a "part of a nation’s linguoculture." where "members of common culture not only share the same information but also the methods of coding, storing and retrieving the information. The occurrence is of note for philologists, linguists. See English language idioms derived from baseball and baseball metaphors for sex.Įxamination of the ethnocultural relevance of these idioms in English speech in areas such as news and political discourse (and how "Rituals, traditions, customs are very closely connected with language and form part and parcel of the linguacultural “realia”") occurs. The body of idioms derived from that sport is so extensive that two other articles are exclusively dedicated to them. This list does not include idioms derived exclusively from baseball. In some cases, the specific sport may not be known these entries may be followed by the generic term sports, or a slightly more specific term, such as team sports (referring to such games as baseball, football, hockey, etc.), ball sports (baseball, tennis, volleyball, etc.), etc. The sport from which each phrase originates has been included immediately after the phrase. They have evolved usages and meanings independent of sports and are often used by those with little knowledge of these games. All images are property the copyright holder and are displayed here for informational purposes only.The following is a list of phrases from sports that have become idioms (slang or otherwise) in English. Many historical player head shots courtesy of David Davis. Some high school data is courtesy David McWater. Some defensive statistics Copyright © Baseball Info Solutions, 2010-2021. Total Zone Rating and initial framework for Wins above Replacement calculations provided by Sean Smith.įull-year historical Major League statistics provided by Pete Palmer and Gary Gillette of Hidden Game Sports. Win Expectancy, Run Expectancy, and Leverage Index calculations provided by Tom Tango of, and co-author of The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball.
Sports reference free#
Much of the play-by-play, game results, and transaction information both shown and used to create certain data sets was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted by RetroSheet. Logos were compiled by the amazing .Ĭopyright © 2000-2021 Sports Reference LLC. Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. We present them here for purely educational purposes. All logos are the trademark & property of their owners and not Sports Reference LLC.
