Date:    Fri, 5 Jun 1998 18:17:34 -0400
<br>From:    Gregory {Greg} Downing <gd2[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]IS2.NYU.EDU>
<br>Subject: Re: Query of Puzzling Slang Items In A 1910 Baseball Poem
<br>
<br>Well, if nobody is going to take a shot at any of this.... I don't have all
<br>the resources I'd like here at home, but maybe a few guesses will provoke
<br>someone who knows more to say something.
<br>
<br>
<br>At 11:10 AM 6/5/98 -0500, Gerald Cohen <gcohen[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UMR.EDU> wrote:
<br>>     Dear Sir: I notice in the papers that your team is ON THE RAG [What is
<br>>the original reference here?]
<br>
<br>Could this be "on the rag" = in a bad mood [here, because they are a losing
<br>team]? For what it's worth, OED2 doesn't attest this before 1969 ("Current
<br>Slang (Univ. S. Dakota) I_II. 65 On the rag, in a bad mood.---College males,
<br>Arizona.) But *if* this locution originally refers to menstrual hygiene, it
<br>seems likely to go back at least several decades before 1969 given the
<br>changes in menstrual hygiene by the mid-20th century.
<br>
<br>
<br>>     Half of last year's bunch are holdouts and the new ones can't play tag
<br>>[i.e. can't even do child's play]
<br>>      If you really want a winner,
<br>>      Sign me up--I'm now a TINNER [What is a 'tinner'?]
<br>
<br>I don't find it in various references I happen to have nearby, but
<br>speculatively???: "someone who plays baseball for, or at least deserves, a
<br>(high) salary" or "someone who will make money by increasing attendance at
<br>games"??? (In either case, from "tin" = money.) Unless someone can find
<br>"tinner," perhaps it's just a nonce-coinage using the -er suffix -- very common.
<br>
<br>
<br>>But I've trained with all the good ones--what I want is one square deal,
<br>>And I'll bet the fans will say I'm making good right off the reel. [The
<br>>reference seems to be to a fishing reel]
<br>
<br>OED2 reel n. meaning 2c. "off the reel" =  without stopping, in an
<br>uninterrupted course or succession; also, immediately, quickly; so right (or
<br>_sharp) off the reel. [First cite, 1825.] The second sense ("immediately")
<br>seems correct here. The jobseeker says he'd play well immediately.
<br>
<br>
<br>>
<br>>    [Verse #4]:
<br>>     If you need a real live captain--I don't want to puff myself,
<br>>     But I'll make these big leaguers look like Swiss cheese on the shelf
<br>>[seems to indicate something stale]
<br>>     Freddie Clarke WOULD TAKE IT RUNNING [Does this mean 'skedaddle'? Why
<br>>'take it' here?]
<br>>     Any time that I went gunning
<br>>     For his berth back there in Pittsburg, but this climate suits my speed.
<br>>    So just pass along the contract--and don't offer chicken feed.
<br>>
<br>
<br>Maybe: Instead of "taking it lying down" (i.e., F.C. simply having to endure
<br>the results of the tinner's superior baseball skills), F.C. would be so
<br>intimidated or overpowered that in the end he would "take it running [away,
<br>in fear of physical injury]"????
<br>
<br>It's perhaps germane that the two most obscure bits in the poem (tinner,
<br>take it running) are rhyme-words. Writers of doggerel are not above
<br>stretching syntax and creating hapaxes in order to get a rhyme. But further
<br>evidence attesting the two locutions solidly would kill that idea....
<br>
<br>Anybody else?
<br>
<br>Greg Downing/NYU, at greg.downing[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]nyu.edu or gd2[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]is2.nyu.edu
<br>