Baseball Rhubarb

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Howdy.

Howdy, who’s this?

This is James from Dallas, Texas.

Hi, James. Welcome. What can we do for you?

Well, I was watching the 1951 movie with a friend of mine recently called Rhubarb, which is based on H. Allen Smith’s book. It’s about a cat that inherits a baseball team, and hilarity obviously ensues.

Obviously.

And there is a scene in the movie where a reporter has called one of the representatives for the team and is asking why they called the cat rhubarb, which we hadn’t thought of. And the representative offers a few explanations, says it’s a Donnybrook or a dust-up. And then the caretaker of the cat comes on and informs the reporter that a rhubarb is what happens when there’s a sale and two ladies reach for the same dress at the same time.

Yeah, I’ve been there.

And we were just kind of confused as it kind of left us wondering what exactly rhubarb was.

So we’re not talking about the vegetable.

Didn’t think they were.

So we’re talking about a fight then or some kind of argument or some kind of intense staring. What is it exactly? Does it involve a fight? I mean, is this the kind of thing you get thrown out for? Have you ever been to a sample sale in New York, Grant?

Oh, my gosh.

I have been spared.

So it’s funny. You’ve watched the movie, but have you read the book Rhubarb by H. Allen Smith?

No, I have not.

In the book, he explains explicitly where he gets that term rhubarb. So he picked it up from Red Barber. And Red Barber, if you remember, was the famous sportscaster. And then Red Barber says he picked it up from Jerry Schumacher, who was a New York sports writer. And Jerry Schumacher says he picked it up from Tom Meany, who was another New York sports writer. And so the earliest use that anyone has of this term, remembering this term from being used, is the late 1930s.

But Red Barber was magnificently popular, very well known for his language. And so as soon as he said rhubarb to mean kind of a fight where the manager comes up to the mound during a baseball game and kicks the dirt and gets in his face, you know, and gets thrown out. And everybody comes on the field.

Yeah.

And you hear Red Barber use the term rhubarb to describe that. Then it’s easy to see how it could get popularized from there on. But he’s generally the popularizer, but not the coiner of the rhubarb. And it’s still today used in baseball. Not as often, but does that jive with what you saw in the film?

It seems to.

Yeah? Okay, great. And then do you know Donnybrook? Is that a term that you use?

No. The only one I knew anything about would have been dust up.

Okay.

Donnybrook is, what is it? There was a fair in a part of Ireland.

Ireland, yeah.

In Donnybrook, Ireland. It was known as a raucous, loud affair. Rough and tumble brawling.

Yeah.

So Donnybrook is a loud commotion.

Yeah, with a small d.

With a small d, yeah.

Exactly, Donnybrook.

Yeah, but why rhubarb?

Well, there’s some theories on that. Some people think it’s just kind of a corruption of hubbub, but there’s no real good reason for it. Sports writing is a bit of a mystery. These guys are always working to embellish their language, and they’ll just coin stuff on the spot and see if it sticks.

It sort of sounds like what it is, right?

Yeah, rhubarb, rhubarb.

Does that work for you, James?

That works fine.

Okay, super duper. Thanks for calling.

All right, thank you all very much.

Take care, bye-bye.

All right, bye-bye.

You too.

There is a really good entry for rhubarb in Paul Dixon’s baseball dictionary.

Which is a fantastic dictionary.

Yeah, it’s very good.

Good entry.

Look it up there. The other thing to say about rhubarb, you know, this is what they call the fake crowd noise in movie scenes. When you’ve got people talking who aren’t the focus of the shot.

Rhubarb, rhubarb.

Yeah.

They may be saying rhubarb. Sometimes they say peanut butter and jelly and other things. But yeah, but it’s called rhubarb.

877-929-9673 is the number to call to talk about language or send your questions and email to words@waywordradio.org.