In baseball lingo, to dial eight is to hit a home run. According to The Dickson Baseball Dictionary, the expression arose back when traveling baseball players had to dial the numeral 8 on a motel phone in order to begin a long-distance call. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Dial Eight in Baseball”
The other day my friend Mark used the expression dial eight. Do you know this expression?
Not dial eight as in to grow larger or smaller like an eye, Iris. No?
No, no. It’s like dial the number eight.
Oh, no. I don’t know this. What is that?
Well, it’s a baseball term.
Back in the 70s and 80s, before cell phones, hotels had special lines for long distance.
And you access those lines by dialing not nine to get out, but eight if you were going to make a long distance call.
And so if a player hits a home run, then his teammates would say, he really dialed eight on that pitch.
Because he’s going long distance on the ball.
Nice.
Yeah, isn’t that nice?
Okay, that’s good.
That’s a new one for me.
Yeah, outdated.
Yeah, it’s in Paul Dixon’s baseball dictionary.
I double-checked.
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