From fair bawl to fowl, going back, back, back
Here is a squib by old pal Mikhail Horowitz who, more than a decade ago, gave us “Kessler at the Bat”; a ballad of the republic, or, hero as shmendrik (https://bit.ly/4hBrRSI). This time he offers some baseball plays on words, to which I have added visual punnery going back, back, to the game’s beginnings. I will leave Mik’s answers until the end, and the deciphering of the 1859 puns to my learned readers.
Baseball by Synonyms
Nadir of the ninth
Bases inebriated
The Hot Chick
Steps up to the salver
The ewer
Throws a small hamburger
The Hot Chick
Emulates the Count Basie band, and . . .
It’s a blind Greek poet!
All four baserunners get laid!
Deer dead!
Horowitz’s answers are at the bottom. The images below, like the one that heads the piece, are from Ballou’s Monthly of June 1871.
Yet even before these puns of 1871, William T. Crane offered a panoply in “A Comprehensive View of Base Ball,” 1859.
HOROWITZ ANSWERS:
Nadir of the ninth = Bottom of the ninth
Bases inebriated = Bases loaded
The Hot Chick = The Babe
Steps up to the salver = Steps up to the plate
The ewer = The pitcher
Tosses a small hamburger = throws a slider
Emulates the Count Basie band, and swings. . .
It’s a blind Greek poet! = It’s a Homer!
All four baserunners get laid! = All four baserunners score
Deer dead! = Game over!
The last of these echoes Crane’s image from 1859, when each team supplied its own scorer:
Baseball Is a Punny Game was originally published in Our Game on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.