snow-cone
v.— «But how many close plays at first are there? How many near catches in the outfield that are called as a catch when they are “snow-coned?”» —“MLB: Rekindle the Instant Replay Controversy” by Brandon Heikoop Bleacher Report May 24, 2008. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
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Ahhhh. Makes sense now. Thanks.
Nothing new here…
1978 Gettysburg (Pa.) Times 27 May 13/4 “I ‘snow-coned’ it,” Cox said, describing a catch in which the ball sticks out of the glove like ice cream in a cone.
Buh? So what *is* the definition of ‘snow-cone’? It’s not clear at all from the write up or the article. I’m not a sports fan and I have no idea what this means.
As the 1978 cite indicates, a snow-cone catch is one where the fielder just barely hangs on to the ball, so that the ball ends up peeking out of the glove. But it’s only ruled a catch if the fielder can get it in his glove before it hits the ground (otherwise it’s a “trap”). So the Bleacher Report cite is referring to near-catches (traps) that look to umpires like catches because the ball bounces into the glove and is “snow-coned”.