The Words the UK Knows but Americans Don't (and vice versa)

[SimonDoom]

Never been the same since the Star Wars battle droids squeak out "Roger Roger"...

I think of the cockpit scene in Airplane.

 

[PennameWombat]

Ok, I was doing my daily exercise of 17 press ups this morning and thought of another word...'rodgering'

Which immediately brought to mind General Melchett in Blackadder IV:

I don't care if he's been rogering the Duke of York with a prize-winning leek. He shot my pigeon!

Blackadder IV, Episode 2 - Corporal Punishment

 

[PennameWombat]

I've heard similar quotes from so many footballers and managers! I recall Souness signing Johnston and it being newsworthy - let's face it, football is tribal and not progressive in the least (not since the 30s when the FA banned women's teams and Rangers started banning Catholics) - we're talking a sport where there's still not one out gay player in the top leagues (since Fashunu's suicide in the 90s). My colleague was in a youth team recently, too scared to come out, as apparently it really hasn't improved much - despite the large handful of gay footballers people know exist...

Crystal Palace is my local team: they've cleaned up a lot since Ogg's experiences, though the surrounding area hasn't. The last ungentrified bit of London, Fort Neef and Selhurst... I have a bit of a soft spot for Millwall.

"We are Millwall, we are Millwall, no-one likes us, we don't care..." (to the tune of Sailing)

The above indicates why the US has been so dominant in women's football (soccer). Back when I first started playing (late 1970s), many Americans considered it a "girl's game" and there was never any stigma about women playing and with the requirements to meet Title IX for women's collegiate sports, soccer was an obvious and easy fit. And, to credit Millwall, they were one of the first pro clubs (although it was slow) to embrace women with "The Lionesses".

But to keep this tied to the thread, for Americans wishing to understand or touch on the tribal nature of 'football', check out the classic by Desmond Morris, The Soccer Tribe. He originally wrote it in the 1970s, released an updated version in 2016. And, Among the Thugs, by American Bill Buford and released 1990, from his experiences hanging out with soccer hooligans through their heyday in the 1980s, mainly in the UK and Italy.

As to gay players, what you said. I recall in the 1990s, even the US Women's National team occasionally highlighted the fact at least some of their players weren't lesbians. It was subtle, and often focused on showing their male spouses and sometimes children. Megan Rapinoe has definitely broken that down, but not like she hasn't taken lots of shit. When I coached an adult high-level amateur women's team (first half of the 1980s) there was occasional tension between straight and gay players... sometimes seemingly in jest (we were travelling to an out-of-state tournament, so a couple of days in a hotel, and comments/jokes about who would and wouldn't share rooms, and not just around who snored or not... and once or twice it got a bit more heated when one said something 'out of turn.')

Maybe there's something in the intensity of a footie match, blink and you'll miss the action, that leads to the high emotions? The couple baseball games I've been dragged to, the baseball seemed almost an afterthought compared to the food and beer. It was like a warm-up band no-one cares about missing, people wandering off all the time, so many you couldn't really have paid attention anyway and you'd have been singing "Sit Down Shut Up" permanently if anyone had started it. By the seventh inning I was just wishing for anything stronger than beer...

I like watching baseball. But I grew up playing it, my dad was a semi-pro player in his youth, so I absorbed deep knowledge around the sport. I quit playing in my teens (and took up soccer, you know, teenage rebellion) but I can appreciate a game. Like game 7 of the 2014 World Series, when I sat in The Crown & Anchor pub (in Las Vegas) and watched Madison Bumgarner pitch 5 incredible innings in relief, on two days rest, retired 14 batters in a row, but idiotic errors by the center and left fielders in the bottom of the ninth almost made it all for naught. He was in a zone. His teammates and manager and coaches left him alone between innings in the dugout. Didn't talk to him, didn't joke with him, it's something I recognize. Much controversy over Bumgarner being given a save in that game instead of the win, since the starting pitcher only pitched four innings, not the five as required. But alas, the scorers have deemed it a save.

But if much of the above paragraph doesn't make sense to you, I'm not surprised. But it just further cements this thread's subject that "words others don't get" goes both ways.

But yes, for lots of people attending in stadiums, the game is just sort of 'down there' while it's mostly a beer, soda and hot dog delivery pipeline.

And it's why I feel that for most sports, while you can enjoy the crazed kinetic energy of many (e.g., Aussie Rules, Gaelic football, American football), without understanding the rules and techniques, you'll run up against limitations. Probably why I got deeply into soccer and rugby, but no, never managed cricket, because I like to understand the sport. Like baseball, IMHO you need to understand the "whys" of cricket to appreciate it. I've always found it wild that the German international soccer player Dietmar Hamann (who was also a star for Liverpool) is a huge cricket fan.

Back to words - what do baseball players call those pants they wear that go all wrinkled and unflattering?

That depends. The 'full length' ones, that reach ankles, are called, um, "pants". The shorter ones that reach just below the knees and tuck into socks are called "knickers" (the original baseball rules were called "The Knickerbocker Rules"). With knickers, there is usually a solid sock (why teams had nicknames around stockings or socks, like the Boston Red Stockings[1]) with a 'stirrup' over that. Oddly, while there are rules around pants/knickers, it's up to a team to have every player wear the same length or not, it's not encoded by the rules. Thus, some players might be in knickers, others in pants that reach their shoes. (Although today, teams are usually consistent for marketing reasons.) As to how baggy the garments are, that varies over time. Way back when, baggy. Then they went snugger, then baggier, now they tend to be snugger and there is a rule against being overly baggy, but many players like them that way.

[1] Only because I'm on a roll here, until someone hits me with a baseball or cricket bat. I mentioned above the Boston Red Stockings. You're probably thinking, "of course, the Boston Red Sox, they changed the name." You might think that, you'd be wrong. The Boston Red Stockings are... today... called the, ahem, Atlanta Braves. They were founded as the Red Stockings in 1871, became charter members of the original National League in 1876, had various name changes (Red Caps, Beaneaters, then finally Braves), moved to Milwaukee (1953) then to Atlanta (1965). The Boston Red Sox were part of the upstart American League that formed in 1901 to challenge the National League in pro baseball (but they weren't the "Red Sox" until 1907, they started as the "Americans"...)