Sports Nut

Sports Nut

When you grow up around athletics through playing and coaching, it’s easy to be referred to as a sports nut. I plead guilty. In our high school, only 3 sports were offered: football, basketball and baseball. We went from one to other with no off-season. For the females, Title 9 hadn’t been enacted so there were no girl’s sports. Fortunately, that changed in the early 70’s.

Recently, we got to talking about some unusual terms associated with different sports. See if you can identify the sport just by reading the comment or phrase. There are 20 listed. As a former teacher/coach, count off 5 points for those you missed.

The answers are at the end. No cheating.

1. “Tom practiced every night for a week. He finally achieved his goal of getting a turkey.”
2. “Since Bob was new at coaching this sport, he would simply yell at the players to mark up when he didn’t know anything else to say.”
3. “The game was tied until Sammy threw an airmail. That ended it right there.”
4. “When Susan started keeping the scorebook, she had no idea what a backwards K stood for.”
5. “You could always be assured that Mike would do the same every day. That’s why he was called a chalk player.”
6. “Thank goodness his corner decided to pitch in the towel before it got further out of hand.”
7. “In junior high, the coach couldn’t find a singlet for Joe who barely weighed 100 pounds.”
8. “His only chance was a Gilman clear to keep his team in the game.”
9. “If he would put more bottom English on his shot, he wouldn’t scratch so much.”
10. “Ed kept making his opponent go in the kitchen on his third shot.”
11. “To speed up the match, they lost count and decided to just give Roy a snowman.”
12. “The All Star delivered a Yorker which was almost impossible to hit.”
13. “He was recruited as a 5 but the way he moves, makes him look more like a 4 to me.”
14. “I was confused when the referee said Love All, Play.”
15. “They stood next to each other and chose to Diddle for the Middle.”
16. “The judge yelled let take 2 as soon as he saw the first shot.”
17. “For him to pull off a top shelf shot, it took years and years of practice.”
18. “The coach decided to put Rick in the IM for the last meet.”
19. “Anybody knows that you put your fastest guy as the anchor.”
20. “If you get a weakside shade, you should chip off and work backside to the Jack.”

Time’s Up.

1. In bowling, 3 strikes in a row is called a turkey. Usually, the term turkey is a putdown, except in bowling.
2. In soccer, mark up means to stay close to the man you are guarding. It would be the same as saying pair up.
3. In cornhole, a shot that goes straight through the hole without touching the board is called an airmail. These are really effective when the hole is blocked in front.
4. In baseball, a backwards K in the scorebook indicates a called strike 3. If the batter strikes out swinging, it is written as a regular K.
5. In horse racing, a chalk player is one who always bets the favorite. The term chalk comes from the days that bets were written in chalk on a board. The chalk finished second in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby.
6. In boxing, the trainer will literally pitch a towel in the the ring telling to stop the fight before the boxer gets hurt even more. Other sports use this term loosely when a team has given up.
7. In wrestling, a singlet is the one-piece uniform worn by the wrestlers. It looks like an old swimsuit, worn by men in the roaring twenties. I will let you use your imagination, but they fit tight and can be embarrassing for young boys. And their parents.
8. In lacrosse, a Gilman clear is when the goalie slings the ball as far as he can toward the opposite goal. It’s usually a desperation move.
9. In billiards, putting bottom English on the cue ball makes it either stop or back up when it hits the object ball. English is the spin put on the white cueball.
10. In pickleball, the kitchen is the area near the net that is also known as the no volley zone. It keeps players from standing at the net and slamming the shot before it bounces.
11. In golf, a snowman means scoring an eight on a hole. The figure “8” resembles a snowman.
12.  In cricket, a Yorker is a pitch that hits near the feet of the batsman. These are hard to hit.
13. In basketball, the 5 position is the center or big man on the team. The 4 position is the power forward. 3 is the small forward, 2 is the shooting guard and 1 is the point guard.
14. In badminton, love all, play is said to start the match. Love all means the score is zero to zero.
15. In darts, diddle to the middle is a phrase used for the players to throw for the bullseye to see who goes first.
16. In tennis, a let is a serve that tips the net and goes over. Take 2 means the server has 2 serves to get the ball in play.
17. In ice hockey, top shelf is a goal that hits high in the net over the goalie’s shoulders.
18.  In swimming, the IM stands for Individual Medley. The 4 strokes in order are fly, back, breast and free.
19. In track, the anchor is the runner who runs the last leg in a team relay.
20. In football, this is an offensive lineman’s blocking technique on the defensive lineman and the Jack linebacker.

Post your grades.

We will see if you are really a Sports Nut.