Baseball lingo6/24/2023 ![]() Other fine participants in the tournament were the Indianapolis Hoosiers, Rock Springs Ground Squirrels and the Springfield Long Nine.īut wait… who was Joe Cannon? I actually took the time to look him up on Wikipedia before going: Yesterday at beautiful Kennekuk State Park near Danville, Illinois, the Vermilion Voles vintage base ball team hosted the 2012 Uncle Joe Cannon Base Ball Jamboree and I was a happy spectator. So catchers, wear your tools of ignorance with pride. They are constantly in the game, calling the pitches, and in closest contact with the manager.įurther, I’m sure someone out there has done an informal study proving that of anyone, more catchers have gone on and become coaches and managers than any other managers. Rather than “ignorant”, catchers are the closest thing to the quarterback of the baseball team. Fortunately, things worked themselves out.īaseball Reference Bullpen notes that Tools of ignorance is a rather ironic term, “contrasting the intelligence needed by a catcher to handle the duties of the position”. Indeed, I was not and I was scrambling to forward references to the term, “tools of ignorance” to vindicate myself. Someone not familiar with the colloquial phrase called me on it perhaps thinking I was questioning the intelligence of the catcher in question. I used the term “tools of ignorance” once in an article in my blog, Illinois Baseball Report about a University of Illinois catcher. The term may not be as popular as it once was, though. And for those wondering, catcher’s gear can include (but is not limited to) mask, mitt, chest protector, shin guard, and cup. ![]() All of this when the mercury is trying to climb out of the top of the tube, and those outfielders are on vacation, waiting for something to happen.”Īs noted above, “tools of ignorance” has been around since the 1930s and has been attributed to either Muddy Ruel or Bill Dickey, both AL catchers of the era. ![]() “Players call the catcher’s armor the ‘tools of ignorance.’ Outfielders contend that no one in their senses would clutter themselves up with a mask, a heavy chest protector and weigh down their legs with shin guards. As most baseball fans know, it’s a badge of honor.Ī slightly humorous tidbit from the ApSporting News: When Bleacher Report made their list of the best catchers of all time, they entitled the article Tools of Ignorance: The 10 Greatest Catchers in MLB History. The coining of the phrase is attributed variously to catcher Muddy Ruel and to Yankee catcher Bill Dickey. Tools of ignorance noun: A catcher’s gear. It can be used for other sports’ offseasons, as well. It’s interesting to note that though the term originated from waiting for the cold winter to end and the baseball season to start, the term “Hot Stove” is not necessarily relegated to baseball anymore. You can bet most of them have a play on the words “Hot Stove”. and practically every baseball podcast out there produces an episode this time of year devoted to free agent signing and player movement. Tim Dierkes who is editor of the very thorough MLB blog, goes by the Twitter handle Baseball holds an annual Hot Stove Banquet if you’re interested in following all the transactions during the offseason on Twitter, #hotstove is the hashtag you want to follow. Sports Illustrated files their off-season news at refers to their online free agent/trade database as the Hot Stove Tracker. Unlike some archaic baseball terms, hot stove league is very much in use today. ![]() The idea is that fans would gather around the hot stove to warm themselves and would talk about the upcoming season. It was seen used in The Sporting News in 1920 according to this source. The term hot stove goes back as far as the early 1900’s according to some sources. Two, it can mean represent those transactions themselves. One, the idea of fans of the game discussing the off-season goings on. So as the term evolved, it does really have two meanings. With all of the free agent signings, trades, hirings, and firings. The hot stove is a term used to describe all of the personnel movement in baseball. Interestingly, it was Urban Dictionary that had the best, concise definition in my opinion: via Īs I looked for a good official definition of hot stove league, I was finding that many of the traditional sources (such as the one above) weren’t to my satisfaction. Hot Stove League noun: sports followers (as of baseball) gathering for off-season discussion.
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