MLB - Major League Baseball

A: The St. Louis Wolves?
B: Root, Root, Root For The Home Team
C: Peanuts And Cracker Jack
D: Cooking With Heat
E: Top Of The Ninth
F: Your Money's Worth
G: Catcher In The Wry
H: Bright Lights, Big City
I: The Opening Pitch
J: Box Seats
K: Mr. All-Star
L: Twins - The Movie
M: America's Pastime
N: Paige For Paige
O: How To Keep Young

A: The St. Louis Wolves?

That was the name of the mythical baseball team in Abbot and Costello's famous riot, "Who's On First?" In the skit, Costello is a peanut vendor named Sabastion Dinwiddle and he's talking to Abbot who is Dexter Broadhurt, the manager of the St. Louis Wolves. The skit was first done on the radio numerous times and then later adapted to the big screen in the film, "The Naughty Nineties". The skit was such a hit that it has been translated into 30 different languages, with Abbot and Costello actually performing some of them themselves.

Baseball Lingo: Backdoor Slider - A pitch that appears to be out of the strike zone, but then breaks back over the plate.

B: Root, Root, Root For The Home Team

The very first known baseball song was written in 1858, called "The Baseball Polka!". The most famous baseball song of all time was written several years later in 1908. Jack Norworth was a vaudeville entertainer and took 15 minutes to scribble down the words on a scrap piece of paper during a train ride to New York. He gave those lyrics to Albert Von Tilzer who composed the music, which was then published by the York Music Company. That song was, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game". The song is now sung at every ballpark in the country during the seventh inning stretch. On June 27th, 1940, the 15th anniversary of the song, Jack Norworth attended his very first Major League ballgame. It was the Brooklyn Dodgers vs. the Chicago Cubs and he was presented with a gold lifetime ballpark pass.

Baseball Lingo: Baltimore Chop - A ground ball that either hits the home plate or in front of it and takes a large hop over the infielder's head.

C: Peanuts And Cracker Jack

Harry Caray was the one that really made the song famous with the fans. He is credited with being the first to sing it at a ball game in 1971. By Opening Day 1976, Caray was leading the crowd with a sing-along and the song has been a staple of the game ever since.

Baseball Lingo: Hot Corner - the third base.

D: Cooking With Heat

"Baseball begins in the spring, the season of new life. Football begins in the fall, when everything's dying." - George Carlin

George Carlin does a great bit about the game of baseball. He rants: "Baseball is different from any other sport, very different. For instance, in most sports you score points or goals; in baseball you score runs. In most sports the ball, or object, is put in play by the offensive team; in baseball the defensive team puts the ball in play, and only the defense is allowed to touch the ball. In fact, in baseball if an offensive player touches the ball intentionally, he's out; sometimes unintentionally, he's out".

In football, basketball, soccer, volleyball, and all sports played with a ball, you score with the ball and in baseball the ball prevents you from scoring.

Football has hitting, clipping, spearing, piling on, personal fouls, late hitting and unnecessary roughness. Baseball has the sacrifice. Baseball has the seventh inning stretch. Football has the two-minute warning.

In football the object is for the quarterback, also known as the field general, to be on target with his aerial assault, riddling the defense by hitting his receivers with deadly accuracy in spite of the blitz, even if he has to use shotgun. With short bullet passes and long bombs, he marches his troops into enemy territory, balancing this aerial assault with a sustained ground attack that punches holes in the forward wall of the enemy's defensive line.

In baseball the object is to go home! And to be safe! - I hope I'll be safe at home!

Baseball Lingo: Fungo - A ball hit to a fielder during practice. The coach usually does the hitting and uses a "fungo bat", which is thinner and longer than a normal baseball bat.

E: Top Of The Ninth

A baseball game can last forever. There is no set time limit. A standard game has 9 innings, but no one knows how long those will be and if need be more innings are played to decide the game.

The longest game played in the past 10 years happened just the other day; The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Florida Marlins 7 to 6 in a 20-inning game. It took 6 hours, 7 minutes and 622 pitches.

Baseball Lingo: Rubber Game - The deciding game of a series.

F: Your Money's Worth

The game with most innings was between the Boston Red Sox and the Brooklyn Dodgers on May 1st, 1920. The game ended after 26 innings with a tie score of one a piece.

The longest game per hours was between Chicago and Milwaukee on May 9th, 1984. They were out there for 9 hours and 52 minutes. The shortest game was only 51 minutes between New York and Philadelphia in 1919.

William Shakespeare never played baseball as far as we know, but he did invent the term, "money's worth".

Baseball Lingo: Cheese - refers to a really good fastball.

G: Catcher In The Wry

Self-proclaimed, "Mr. Baseball", Bob Uecker was on the Mendoza line topping his six year career in the Majors with a .200 lifetime average with 146 hits, 14 home runs and 74 RBIs in 297 games. He played with the Braves, Cardinals and Phillies. Not a stellar player he parlayed his self-deprecating humor into a whole new avenue as a writer, actor and sportscaster. In July 2003 he will finally get inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, not for his playing but for being a broadcaster. If you don't remember him you might remember his series of humorous Lite beer commercials were he coined the phrase, "I must be in the front row!"

Baseball Lingo: Mendoza Line - a batting average of around .200

H: Bright Lights, Big City

The way the game was played was changed forever with the very first night game between Cincinnati and Philadelphia in 1935. President Franklin Roosevelt threw the light switch on that game via his office at the White House, 600 miles from Crosley Field where it was played.

Baseball Lingo: Meatball - An easy pitch to hit, usually right down the middle of the plate.

I: The Opening Pitch

The first professional baseball game was played on May 4th, 1871, between Forest City and Fort Wayne. But the game extends much further back than that. An earlier version was called Rounders. George Washington reportedly played an early version of Rounders with his troops during the American Revolution.

J: Box Seats

Baseball movies date back almost as far as the professional league. In 1898, Thomas Edison produced the very first baseball movie called, "The Ball Game". It basically just showed a couple of amateur teams playing in Newark, New Jersey. The first feature film was produced in 1915 and was called, "Right Off the Bat!".

K: Mr. All Star

Kevin Costner stars in 3 of the most popular baseball movies, "Bull Durham", "Field of Dreams" and "For Love of the Game".

Baseball Lingo: Seeing-Eye Single - A soft ground ball that finds its way between infielders for a base hit.

L: Twins - The Movie

There's not one, but two films about an unlikely owner of the Minnesota Twins. "Major League: Back to the Minors" has Corbin Bernsen's character, Roger Dorn emerging as the owner of the championship Twins and causing havoc for all his old teammates. "Little Big League" has a 12-year-old kid inheriting the Twins after his grandfather dies. Then hiring himself as manager and taking the team all the way, well not all the way but pretty far.

Baseball Lingo: Brushback - A pitch that nearly hits a batter.

M: America's Pastime

According to recent fan survey, these are the top 10 most memorable moments in baseball:

10: 1991 - Nolan Ryan pitches his seventh no-hitter.

9: 1988 - Kirk Gibson's pinch-hit homer starts Dodgers to World Series upset.

8: 1941 - Joe DiMaggio hits in 56 straight.

7: 1941 - Ted Williams posts the last .400 average.

6: 1985 - Pete Rose passes Ty Cobb as the hit-leader.

5: 1939 - Lou Gehrig bids farewell.

4: 1998 - Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa race to overtake Roger Maris.

3: 1947 - Jackie Robinson breaks MLB's color line.

2: 1974 - Hank Aaron's 715th homer.

1: 1995 - Cal Ripken breaks Lou Gehrig's streak with his 2,131st consecutive game.

Baseball Lingo: Ruthian - it means "with great power", in regards to Babe Ruth.

N: Paige For Paige

"Age is a case of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it don't matter."

"How old would you be if you didn't know how old you were?"

"Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never been hurt. Dance like nobody's watching."

"I've said it once and I'll say it a hundred times, I'm forty-four years old."

These are all famous quotes from legendary pitcher, Satchel Paige. He holds the Major League record for pitching a game at the oldest age of 49.

Leroy Robert Paige received his nickname from carrying suitcases at the Union Railroad Station in Mobile, Alabama.

O: How To Keep Young

Satchel had these six rules printed on the back of his business cards:

1. Avoid fried meats which angry up the blood.

2. If your stomach disputes you, lie down and pacify it with cool thoughts.

3. Keep the juices flowing by jangling around gently as you move.

4. Go very light on the vices, such as carrying on in society. The social ramble ain't restful.

5. Avoid running at all times.

6. Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you