Origin of “On the Ball”

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Ted from Indianapolis.

Hi, Ted, welcome.

Hello, Ted.

Hello.

What would you like to talk about today?

I was curious what the origin of the term on the ball is, or I guess the phrase on the ball.

Where did you run into that recently?

Me and some friends, we were on our way down to Mexico for the weekend.

I was visiting them on the West Coast, and it just kind of came up.

We were talking about someone at his work who was on the ball.

And he kind of paused and said, you know, I wonder where that came from.

And so I sort of ventured a guess and then kind of stopped and thought, you know, I don’t really know that.

So I thought I’d find out if you guys knew anything.

What was your guess?

My guess, I actually kind of connected a few dots.

I knew a little bit about naval aviation and that when they land on the aircraft carrier, they have all these nicknames for parts.

The arresting cables are called spaghetti wires, and the Fresnel lamp is called the meatball.

And at one point in the landing process, they actually are told to call the ball.

Sure.

And I don’t know what they say at that point, but in theory you would want to be on the ball because that would mean you’re lined up.

And I know all their landings are judged, so I just kind of connected a bunch of dots and said, I wonder if that’s where it came from.

It’s not a bad theory.

I think I’ve run into that language myself, not the least for movies.

I think they used that in Top Gun, didn’t they?

Right.

But unfortunately, the reason I know that it can’t be the origin is because the term is older than aviation.

Aha!

Early 1900s for certain, but definitely before they were landing jet fighters on aircraft carriers.

But would it surprise you if I told you that it’s probably from baseball?

So many other terms that we have that have migrated out of baseball, like to hit a home run or to touch all the bases or all these.

Grand slam.

Yeah, grand slam.

Most word researchers believe that it has to do with the spin that a pitcher puts on the ball.

So if you have something on the ball or you have something good on the ball, that means that you’ve done just the right thing to it.

So it will break at the plate like it should or will handle like it should, curve, or just do the thing that it’s supposed to do when it goes across the plate.

But more generally, I think it has to do with all of the ball-related sports, but maybe especially baseball.

You always have to be aware of what the ball is doing, where it is, where it’s going, where it’s been.

The game, especially in baseball, is about the ball.

So to be on the ball is to be conscious of the ball, to be paying attention to the ball.

So all of the early uses of this term that we find in print demonstrate that it probably did definitely come out of baseball.

But whether or not it had to do with just general interest in paying attention to the ball or specifically to the English that a pitcher might put on a ball.

Or spit.

Or tar, more likely.

Hair treatment.

Yeah, so it’s an enticing theory about the meatball, but is that what you call it?

The meatball.

Is that what you call it?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, the meatball is kind of the slang for it, but in the actual ending, they just call it the ball.

Call the ball, call the ball.

Okay.

Yeah.

All right.

And if you can’t call the ball, then you have to come back around for another try, right?

Exactly.

Okay.

So something as simple as baseball then.

All right, Ted.

Take care.

Bye-bye.

Bye.

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