APAD: Step up to the plate

Meaning:

    This is an expression used in baseball, meaning `enter the batter's box to

    take a turn to bat'.

 

Background:

    Clearly, this is an American expression deriving from baseball. Americans

    may forgive a little further simple explanation for those of us outside the

    USA, understanding as much about baseball as you do about cricket, and

    wouldn't know Yogi Berra from Yogi Bear.

 

    Firstly, what's the plate? Well, it's a real plate marking the batter's

    position. `Step up' is what it sounds like - batter's step up to the plate

    when it's their turn to bat.

 

    The expression began to be used towards the end of the 19th century. The

    first example that I know of comes from the Illinois newspaper The Chicago

    Tribune, May 1874, in a game between the White Stockings and Hartford:

 

      The visitors were put out as fast as they stepped up to the plate.

 

    There's little else to say about this expression.

 

- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Really? Mr. Martin, the British author of the above (God Bless him), hasn't even

given the idiomatic meaning of the phrase! Here's what Ginger Software (via

google) said:

 

    The phrase 'Step Up to the Plate' means to accept a challenge or

    responsibility for something; to rise to the occasion. Example of Use: "It's

    time for Tom to step up to the plate and take on his share of work."

 

I wouldn't care hadn't I just read a section in the American Heritage Dictionary

under the word "strike." "The central role that baseball has played in American

culture is known to all," it says, "but is particularly evident in the abundance

of baseball expressions applied to circumstances outside the sport" and goes on

with a slew of examples.

 

    When people say that they have struck out in an endeavor, they are using one

    such expression. We routinely speak of ballpark figures or estimates, of

    some unexpected quirk of fate or tricky question on an exam being a curve

    ball, of minor-league or bush-league players in a field or business, who

    might one day enter the big leagues, if we can't go to lunch with a person

    who invites us, we take a rain check. We can go to bat or pinch-hit for a

    friend. We can be off base about something or so disconnected we are out in

    the left field. When we cooperate we are playing ball, and when we get

    serious or even ruthless about something, we are playing hardball. Some

    unfortunate people are said to have been born with two strikes against them

    if bad things come right off the bat. The list could go on and on, but that

    would only be running up the score.

Wow, baseball & life, well done 7G! I'm "on the ball" now &

found glossaryOfBaseballTerms below makes one's headSpin ;-)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_baseball_terms

Oh, God! Totally floored by the wiki! Need another lifetime

and zeal for the sport to know these :-)))

I need 10 lives toLearn ;-) introduced2 it by E teacher in C

onlyRemebered strike&homeRun: "Run&Run&Run bf theBallFalls"

but often than not I fell down faster than the ball :-))))

I kept reminding myself that the pitcher and catcher are on

the same team when the TV shows a baseball game:-)

Just checked: the runner and hitter are on the same side:-))

thx God, I knew that, but not much others ;-))

Let's rock!

hmm, looksLike onlyNeed 12跟帖 2 rock a post? 4All posts？哈哈哈；）

just4fun: my last APAD won't rock with 15跟帖, must B 2 heavy

maybe I need a 2nd ID 2, Hahaha ;-))))

maybe I need a 2nd ID 2 rock it, just kidding ;-))))

or someone doesn't like Joni Mitchell, a joke again ;-)))