Malapropism of the week

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[h/t David Donnell]



23 Comments

  1. Keith said,

    June 9, 2015 @ 3:14 am

    Presumably he is the only player on the field who needs a pair of baseball gloves. With webs between the fingers, to help him swim.

  2. Rubrick said,

    June 9, 2015 @ 3:24 am

    His talents are wasted in Oakland. He should play for the Mariners.

  3. Bhell said,

    June 9, 2015 @ 3:55 am

    On the other hand, amphibious also means "of a mixed or two-fold nature".

  4. Jongseong Park said,

    June 9, 2015 @ 6:53 am

    I would understand "amphibious pitcher" to mean that he can also pitch underhand (submarine), though that's evidently not what they meant.

  5. Tim Finin said,

    June 9, 2015 @ 7:03 am

    Neither fish nor foul ball

  6. Rube said,

    June 9, 2015 @ 7:19 am

    I was just relieved they didn't go for "bisexual".

  7. Karl Weber said,

    June 9, 2015 @ 7:52 am

    @Rube–No, in baseball the term "switch hitter" is used for someone who "swings both ways."

  8. KevinM said,

    June 9, 2015 @ 9:09 am

    When he came out, the organist played Joni MItchell's "Both Sides Now." A nice touch, I thought.

  9. Frank said,

    June 9, 2015 @ 10:23 am

    Nobody realized that this was an homage to Yogi Berra?

  10. Dr. Decay said,

    June 9, 2015 @ 11:14 am

    Like Jongseong Park, I immediately thought "submarine pitcher" when I saw the headline.

  11. K. Chang said,

    June 9, 2015 @ 11:42 am

    Just for the heck of it… Is it "malaprop of the week"… or "malapropism of the week"? ;)

  12. VUGear said,

    June 9, 2015 @ 12:28 pm

    I hear he's got a heck of a sinker.

  13. Eric P Smith said,

    June 9, 2015 @ 1:04 pm

    It never fails to amaze me how a headline-writer can foul up a perfectly good article. The second paragraph of the article plainly says "ambidextrous". Why on earth did the headline writer choose a different word?

  14. David Fried said,

    June 9, 2015 @ 2:22 pm

    First amphibious baseball player since "Gill" Hodges. . .

  15. David Fried said,

    June 9, 2015 @ 2:27 pm

    But now there is an entire team of amphibians . . .

    http://www.salamandersbaseball.com/

    I'll stop now.

  16. Jacob said,

    June 9, 2015 @ 2:58 pm

    Don't forget the dodecadactylous Antonio "Octopus" Alfonseca.

  17. Chris C. said,

    June 9, 2015 @ 8:26 pm

    Frank is right. The purported Berra-ism is, "He hits from both sides of the plate. He's amphibious."

    Whether Yogi ever actually said that is a different matter. As he put it, "I never said most of the things I said."

  18. Tom Goodwillie said,

    June 9, 2015 @ 8:36 pm

    My first reaction was to search for a pitcher called "Newt". Found one:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newt_Kimball

  19. David Donnell said,

    June 10, 2015 @ 12:49 am

    If that headline was a Yogi Berra riff that I was ignorant of, then this-here near-St Louisan feels mortified! (Thanks Frank & Chris C.)

  20. Larry Sheldon said,

    June 11, 2015 @ 2:39 am

    Suresh Ramasubramanian posted this one on Facebook:

    https://www.facebook.com/hiddenpockets/photos/a.1023621724317895.1073741829.1020854197927981/1068889133124487/?type=1

  21. Graeme said,

    June 14, 2015 @ 3:54 am

    Dexterity is, etymologically speaking, a sinister word. The sub-ed was subverting the paradigm.

  22. PubliusVA said,

    June 16, 2015 @ 8:11 am

    "Dexterity is, etymologically speaking, a sinister word."

    You are very adroit in pointing out the gaucheness of this term.

  23. nickM said,

    June 17, 2015 @ 10:23 pm

    @Rube Or "gender-fluid".

    But Occam's Razor suggests that Frank is right about the Yogi Berra tribute. As well as Poe's Law – and the closely related natural justice principle, that it's better to mistake stupidity for wit than the reverse.

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