Have you ever listened to Bob Uecker broadcast the Brewers game and wondered what in the heck he was talking about when he mentioned the southpaw pitcher or a batter hitting a Texas Leaguer? Well, here are the definitions and the history behind those commonly used baseball terms.

Southpaw: A southpaw is known as a left-handed pitcher. The early baseball fields (ones without lights) had to build fields according to the location of the sun so that they could take advantage of the light. The fields faced the east and therefore the pitcher’s left arm would be facing the south, and in reference to a dog’s “hands” the term was coined south paw. That would make all you right-handers northpaws!

Shortstop: In the first baseball game ever played, each infielder stood on or next to the base they were covering. The shortstop was positioned in the grass of the infield in order to stop short dribblers from turning into a single, hence the term shortstop. The shortstop was moved back to its current position in the early 1900s.

Bullpen: The term “bullpen” was issued in the early days of baseball when the warm-up areas for pitchers were usually placed in the outfield underneath advertisements for Bull Durham chewing tobacco. The name eventually stuck. There have also been claims that when a coach would pull a pitcher he would be “shooting the bull” and in need of a new bull from the pen.

Mendoza Line: When a baseball players batting average hovers around .200 or below. The term was coined in 1979 when Mario Mendoza, shortstop (see above) for the Seattle Mariners at the time, hit .198 in that season, eventually pulling his career average down to .215.

In the hole: It refers to the batter who is waiting to be on-deck to hit. The term derived from boating terms, in which items were placed “in the hold” prior to being placed on deck.

Texas Leaguer: Referred to as a bloop single just over the infielder’s head but short of the outfielder’s reach. The term was originated when a Texas minor league team perfected the art of the bloop single. The team took advantage of the gulf jet stream that blows over Texas and would pop singles just over the infield. A player from the minor league made it to the majors and his teammates coined the term after he hit eight straight bloop singles and told them about his strategy in the minors.

Around the horn: This refers to a 5-4-3 double-play, or third baseman to second baseman to the first baseman. The term comes from times before the Panama Canal was built, when in order to get from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean, sailors had to go around Cape Horn, or the “Horn,” which is at the southernmost tip of South America.

Can of corn: “It’s as easy as catching a can of corn.” Usually referring to catching a lazy pop fly, the term was phrased, again in the early days of baseball, when cans of corn were placed on the high shelves of super market stores. Clerks would have to knock cans off the higher shelf with a stick as the other clerks caught it, hence catching a can of corn would not be that hard.

* K:* It is a shortened term for a strikeout for scorekeepers. The term was named by Henry Chadwick, who invented baseball scoring techniques. It comes from “knockout” or K.O.

The hardest one: Dennis Eckersley stated, "It's cheese to the kitchen and the yakker for the kudo..." That is full of baseball terms. The statement is referring to a fastball (cheese) at the batters waist (kitchen) for the strikeout (kudo) called by the umpire (yakker).

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