Baseball DIY

You might say that Albert Pujols is my favorite player. You might, but my three-year-old nephew Chris would say that he's my favorite "teamer." Chris and his brother, Brad, have a way with words that increases my expectations for the literary accomplishments of the generation to come.

What I like about the "teamer" phenomenon is that it speaks to a problem that I run into occasionally in vintage base ball: occasionally, I or another player will use "run," "out," or some other anachronistic term that was not in use at the time that we are depicting. This is considered "improper." My contention, at first in jest but now with a little more gravity, is that I'm depicting the invention of the term in an 1864 game. Who says that someone didn't say "two runs scored" instead of "two aces scored" in 1864? He or she probably got the same look that I gave Chris the first time I heard him say "teamer," but someone had to be the first to say it.

The best thing about language (and just about everything else) is that it's always changing. There are roughly fifty bajillion words/phrases that mean "home run," and that's the way it should be. As long as the sounds that your mouth makes (or the words that your hand writes) convey the shade of meaning that you intend, that word is "proper."

What do you think a home run will be called in another hundred years?