Friday, April 1, 2011

DUGOUT LINGO: "Pick Him Up"



"Pick him up!" Depending on how a game's going, you'll hear variations of this saying anywhere between six and fifty times per nine innings of baseball.

Picking a guy up can mean one of two things.

1) To give a guy a high-five at the entrance of the dugout. 

This can happen after any number of occurrences: he scores a run, bunts a runner over, hits a sac fly, knocks a homer, pitches a shutout inning, or does anything else to help the ball club - you pick him up. 

Or it can also be used when things aren't going as well.

2) To bail a teammate out.

A pitcher may come in after blowing a lead, and it's now up to his hitters to "pick him up" - help him out, right his wrong, make people forget about his blunder. A guy strikes out in a key spot with the bases loaded? He's hoping the next batter picks him up.

You pick a guy up after he does something to help the team win, and you hope to pick him up when he lets the team down.

Good teams are picking guys up all day long.

DUGOUT LINGO Series
"Poo-Slinger"

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