Chinese home run
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A Chinese home run, also a Chinese homer, Harlem home run, Polo home run, or Pekinese poke, is a derogatory and archaic
baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...
term for a hit that just barely clears the
outfield The outfield, in cricket, baseball and softball is the area of the field of play further from the batsman or batter than the infield. In association football, the outfield players are positioned outside the goal area. In cricket, baseball a ...
fence at its closest distance to
home plate A baseball field, also called a ball field or baseball diamond, is the field upon which the game of baseball is played. The term can also be used as a metonym for a baseball park. The term sandlot is sometimes used, although this usually refers ...
. It is essentially the shortest
home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...
possible in the ballpark in question, particularly if the park has an atypically short fence to begin with. The term was most commonly used in reference to home runs hit along the right field foul line at the Polo Grounds, home of the New York Giants, where that distance was short even by contemporary standards. When the Giants moved to
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
in 1958, the
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, temporary home of the newly relocated
Los Angeles Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Established in 1883 in the city of Brooklyn ...
, gained the same reputation for four seasons until the team took up residence in its permanent home at
Dodger Stadium Dodger Stadium is a baseball stadium in the Elysian Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. It is the home stadium of Major League Baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers. Opened in 1962, it was constructed in less than three years at a cost of ...
in 1962. Following two seasons of use by the expansion
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in the early 1960s, the Polo Grounds were demolished, and the term gradually dropped out of use. Why these home runs were called "Chinese" is not definitely known, but it is believed to have reflected an early 20th-century perception that
Chinese immigrants Overseas Chinese () refers to people of Chinese birth or ethnicity who reside outside Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. As of 2011, there were over 40.3 million overseas Chinese. Terminology () or ''Hoan-kheh'' () in Hokkien, ref ...
to the United States did the menial labor they were consigned to with a bare minimum of adequacy, and were content with minimal reward for it. A
Tad Dorgan Thomas Aloysius Dorgan (April 29, 1877 – May 2, 1929), also known as Tad Dorgan, was an American cartoonist who signed his drawings as Tad. He is known for his cartoon panel ''Indoor Sports'' and comic strip '' Judge Rummy'', as well as the ma ...
cartoon has been proposed as the likely origin, but that has not been proven; the earliest known usages are in a 1927 newspaper account of a Pittsburgh PiratesPhiladelphia Phillies major-league game, and in a 1919 newspaper account of a
Los Angeles Angels The Los Angeles Angels are an American professional baseball team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Angels compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. Since 1966, the team h ...
Sacramento Senators minor-league game. In the 1950s, an extended take on the term in the '' New York Daily News'' led the city's Chinese-American community to ask sportswriters not to use it. This perception of ethnic insensitivity has further contributed to its disuse. It has been
used Used may refer to: Common meanings *Used good, goods of any type that have been used before or pre-owned *Used to, English auxiliary verb Places *Used, Huesca, a village in Huesca, Aragon, Spain *Used, Zaragoza, a town in Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain ...
to disparage not only the hit but the batter, since it implies minimal effort on his part. Giants' outfielder
Mel Ott Melvin Thomas Ott (March 2, 1909 – November 21, 1958), nicknamed "Master Melvin", was an American professional baseball right fielder, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Giants, from through . He batted left-handed an ...
, who hit many such home runs in the Polo Grounds during his career, was a frequent target of this as his physique and unusual batting stance were not those associated with a
power hitter Power hitter is a term used in baseball for a skilled player that has a higher than average ability in terms of his batting, featuring a combination of dexterity and personal strength that likely leads to a high number of home-runs as well as dou ...
. The hit most frequently recalled as a Chinese home run was the three-run
pinch hit In baseball, a pinch hitter is a substitute batter. Batters can be substituted at any time while the ball is dead (not in active play); the manager may use any player who has not yet entered the game as a substitute. Unlike basketball, Americ ...
walk-off shot by
Dusty Rhodes Virgil Riley Runnels Jr. (October 11, 1945 – June 11, 2015), better known as "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes, was an American professional wrestler, booker, and trainer who most notably worked for the National Wrestling Alliance, Jim Crocket ...
that won the first game of the
1954 World Series The 1954 World Series matched the National League champion New York Giants against the American League champion Cleveland Indians. The Giants swept the Series in four games to win their first championship since , defeating the heavily favored Ind ...
for the Giants on their way to a sweep of the
Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive Fi ...
. A secondary meaning, which continues today, is of a foul ball that travels high and far, often behind home plate. However, this appears to be confined to sandlot and high-school games in
New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the Can ...
. Research into this usage suggests that it may not, in fact, have had anything initially to do with Chinese people, but is instead a corruption of "Chaney's home run", from a foul by a player of that name which supposedly won a game when the ball thus hit, the only one remaining, could not be found.


Etymology

As early as the late 19th century, baseball players and fans had recognized that parks with shorter distances to the foul poles and back fence allowed for home runs that were regarded as undeserved or unearned, since fly balls of the same distance hit closer to or in
center field A center fielder, abbreviated CF, is the outfielder in baseball who plays defense in center field – the baseball and softball fielding position between left field and right field. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the c ...
could easily be caught for
outs In baseball, an out occurs when the umpire rules a batter or baserunner out. When a batter or runner is out, they lose their ability to score a run and must return to the dugout until their next turn at bat. When three outs are recorded in a ha ...
. In 1896, Jim Nolan of '' The Daily News'' of Galveston, Texas, reporting on the expansion of the local ballpark, wrote: "The enlarged size of the grounds will enable the outfielders to cover more ground and take in fly balls that went for cheap home runs before. Batsmen will have to earn their triples and home runs hereafter". In 2010, Jonathan E. Lighter, editor of the ''
Historical Dictionary of American Slang The ''Historical Dictionary of American Slang'', often abbreviated ''HDAS'', is a dictionary of American slang. The first two volumes, ''Volume 1, A – G'' (1994), and ''Volume 2, H – O'' (1997), were published by Random House, and the work t ...
'', posted on the
American Dialect Society The American Dialect Society (ADS), founded in 1889, is a learned society "dedicated to the study of the English language in North America, and of other languages, or dialects of other languages, influencing it or influenced by it." The Society ...
's (ADS) listserv that he had found the earliest use of the term "Chinese home run" for that type of hit in a
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, newspaper's 1927 account of a
National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...
game between the Philadelphia Phillies and Pittsburgh Pirates: "The Phillies went into a deadlock on Cy's Chinese homer only to see the Buccos hammer over four runs a little later." An article in the ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
'' in August 1919 used the term while summarizing a minor league game in the Pacific Coast League between the
Los Angeles Angels The Los Angeles Angels are an American professional baseball team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Angels compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. Since 1966, the team h ...
and Sacramento Senators. "Ellis hit a tremendous Chinese home run just back of Pinelli's head", sportswriter Ed O'Malley wrote, in describing a home run by the Angels' Rube Ellis that, apparently, had not been hit very far past
Babe Pinelli Ralph Arthur "Babe" Pinelli, born Rinaldo Angelo Paolinelli (October 18, 1895 – October 22, 1984), was an American third baseman and umpire in Major League Baseball. Born in San Francisco, his playing career was mostly with the Cincinnati Reds ...
, the Senators' third baseman. The above instances predate the earliest use that Paul Dickson found when researching ''The Dickson Baseball Dictionary''. In a 1930 story for ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'', writer Brian Bell quoted Dan Howley,
manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...
of the Cincinnati Reds, defending the hitting prowess of
Harry Heilmann Harry Edwin Heilmann (August 3, 1894 – July 9, 1951), nicknamed "Slug", was an American baseball player and radio announcer. He played professional baseball for 19 years between 1913 and 1932, including 17 seasons in Major League Baseball with ...
, who was then finishing his career under Howley. "
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were real home runs", Howley said, pointing out how far from the field they had landed. "They were not Chinese home runs in that short bleacher at right", referring to the back fence on the foul line at the Polo Grounds, a mere from home. Dickson reiterated the results of two attempts in the 1950s to determine the term's origin, following its widespread use in stories. After Rhodes' home run, Joseph Sheehan of ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' made the first attempt. His research took him to Garry Schumacher, a former baseball writer then working as the Giants' press relations executive, who had himself been known for creating some baseball terms that went into wide use. Schumacher told him that he believed
Tad Dorgan Thomas Aloysius Dorgan (April 29, 1877 – May 2, 1929), also known as Tad Dorgan, was an American cartoonist who signed his drawings as Tad. He is known for his cartoon panel ''Indoor Sports'' and comic strip '' Judge Rummy'', as well as the ma ...
, a cartoonist popular in the early decades of the 20th century, had introduced it, probably in one of his widely read ''Indoor Sports'' panels. It has, however, been suggested that Dorgan disliked the Giants and their manager,
John McGraw John Joseph McGraw (April 7, 1873 – February 25, 1934) was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) player and manager who was for almost thirty years manager of the New York Giants. He was also the third baseman of the pennant-winning 1890 ...
, which may have also given him a reason to coin a disparaging term for short home runs. (However, Lighter said in a follow-up post to the ADS listserv that he had found no evidence Dorgan coined the term, or even that the cartoonist had heard it.) During the 1910s, when Dorgan's cartoon was at its most popular, there was an ongoing debate over the
Chinese Exclusion Act The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years. The law excluded merchants, teachers, students, travelers, and diplo ...
, the first immigration law in U.S. history to bar entry to the country on the basis of ethnicity or national origin. Chinese immigrants who had entered prior to its 1882 passage remained, however, and were often hired as "
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s", doing menial labor for low pay. "The idea was to express a cheap home run as Chinese then represented what was cheap, such as their labor",
lexicographer Lexicography is the study of lexicons, and is divided into two separate academic disciplines. It is the art of compiling dictionaries. * Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries. * Theoretica ...
David Shulman David Shulman (November 12, 1912 – October 30, 2004) was an American lexicographer and cryptographer. He contributed many early usages to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' and is listed amon"Readers and contributors from collections" for the se ...
told Dickson. This was in keeping with a bevy of other contemporary such usages, such as calling a
Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...
automobile a "Chinese
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". Sheehan also wrote that it carried the additional "connotation of a homer of little account." He did not think that Dorgan, known for the gentleness of his
satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming ...
, had meant it to be insulting, especially since he had two adopted sons from China. In 1958, when the Giants moved to San Francisco and left the Polo Grounds, J. G. Taylor Spink, publisher of ''
The Sporting News The ''Sporting News'' is a website and former magazine publication owned by Sporting News Holdings, which is a U.S.-based sports media company formed in December 2020 by a private investor consortium. It was originally established in 1886 as a pr ...
'', made another attempt to find the source of the term. He agreed with Sheehan that it had originated with Dorgan and the association of Chinese immigrants with cheap labor. However, his article was reprinted in the ''Los Angeles Times'', and readers there wrote in with alternative suggestions. One was from Travis McGregor, a retired San Francisco sportswriter. In his recollection, the term had been in use on the West Coast in the years just before World War I. He attributed it to a joke derived from an aspiring Chinese-American sportswriter covering minor league games in the Pacific Coast League, whom the typists at newspapers simply credited as "Mike Murphy" since they couldn't properly
transcribe Transcription refers to the process of converting sounds (voice, music etc.) into letters or musical notes, or producing a copy of something in another medium, including: Genetics * Transcription (biology), the copying of DNA into RNA, the fir ...
his name. "He had a keen sense of humor, a degree from Stanford and a great yen to be a newspaperman", McGregor wrote in his own letter to ''The Sporting News''. As a result of his education, he spoke with no accent, but still used affected syntax. "He was a one-man show at baseball games ... for two or three seasons, an Oriental
Fred Allen John Florence Sullivan (May 31, 1894 – March 17, 1956), known professionally as Fred Allen, was an American comedian. His absurdist, topically pointed radio program ''The Fred Allen Show'' (1932–1949) made him one of the most popular and for ...
", according to McGregor. Once, he recalled, Murphy described one batter as "wave at ball like
Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...
with fan". This phrase stuck in the minds of the other sportswriters in attendance and, McGregor suggested, it spread among all the league's writers, becoming a
catch phrase A catchphrase (alternatively spelled catch phrase) is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture and in the arts, and typically spread through word of mouth and a variety of mass ...
. "The old Oakland park's short fence caught the most of it from Mike, and his 'Mandarin fan' waving balls out of the park were knocked back to 'Chinese homers'", said McGregor. A number of Murphy's comments were adapted into cartoons by Dorgan, a native of San Francisco, and from there the term migrated into print. McGregor believed that either Ed Hughes or Harry Smith of the ''
San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The ...
'' were the first to do so, and better-known writers like
Ring Lardner Ringgold Wilmer Lardner (March 6, 1885 – September 25, 1933) was an American sports columnist and short story writer best known for his satirical writings on sports, marriage, and the theatre. His contemporaries Ernest Hemingway, Virginia Wo ...
and
Damon Runyon Alfred Damon Runyon (October 4, 1880 – December 10, 1946) was an American newspaperman and short-story writer. He was best known for his short stories celebrating the world of Broadway in New York City that grew out of the Prohibition era. To N ...
may have picked it up from them and popularized it nationwide. Sportswriters extended the idea. Shulman wrote in 1930 of hearing them talk about short pop flies as "Chinese
line drive In the sports of baseball and softball, a batted ball is a pitch that has been contacted by the batter's bat. Batted balls are either fair or foul, and can be characterized as a fly ball, pop-up, line drive, or ground ball. In baseball, a fou ...
s". Texas leaguers, or high bloop singles that fell between the infielders and outfielders, were likewise called "Japanese line drives" when hit in Pacific Coast League games.Dickson
466
There have been other theories to explain how home runs that barely cleared the fence came to be called "Chinese". Dan Schlossberg, a veteran
Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...
baseball writer, accepts the Dorgan story but also reports that Bill McGeehan, then sports editor of the '' New York Tribune'', had in 1920 likened the right field fence at the Polo Grounds to the
Great Wall of China The Great Wall of China (, literally "ten thousand ''li'' wall") is a series of fortifications that were built across the historical northern borders of ancient Chinese states and Imperial China as protection against various nomadic gro ...
: "thick, low, and not very formidable", suggesting that that may also have had something to do with the term's coinage.
Russ Hodges Russell Pleasant Hodges (June 18, 1910 – April 19, 1971) was an American sportscaster who did play-by-play for several baseball teams, most notably the New York Giants / San Francisco Giants. He is perhaps best remembered for his call of Bobby ...
, who called Giants games on the radio in both New York and San Francisco, told the latter city's '' Call-Bulletin'' in 1958 that the term came into use from the supposed tendency of Chinese gamblers watching games at the Polo Grounds in the early 20th century to cluster in seats next to the left field foul pole. "Any hit that went out at that point", he explained, "was followed by cries of 'There goes one for the Chinese'". Another ''Sporting News'' columnist,
Joe Falls Joseph Francis Falls (May 2, 1928 – August 11, 2004) was an American journalist. He began his career in his native New York City. At the age of 17 in 1945, he took a job as a copyboy for the Associated Press. After an apprenticeship of eight year ...
, devoted a column to the term and solicited theories of its origin from readers. Some suggested that it had something to do with the "short jump" in Chinese checkers, or that since Chinese people were generally short, that short home runs would be named after them. Another reader claimed that the term arose because the outfield seats in the Polo Grounds supposedly stuck out in ways that suggested a
pagoda A pagoda is an Asian tiered tower with multiple eaves common to Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most often Buddhist but sometimes Taoist, ...
.


History

The term appears to have caught on quickly in baseball throughout the 1920s. By the 1950s, it was still in use but its connotations were no longer clear, and its use after one notoriously short home run that won a
World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...
game sparked a protest. After the 1964 demolition of the Polo Grounds, with its notoriously short right field fence, the term largely fell from use.


1920s–1954: Mel Ott

After establishing itself in baseball's argot, "Chinese home run" continued to be used, even while most of the other derogatory terms related to the Chinese fell from use; the American public opinion began to see the Chinese people in a more sympathetic light due to China's struggles against Japanese domination during the 1930s, struggles that led to the U.S. and China becoming allies during World War II. Within baseball it was frequently associated with the Giants and the Polo Grounds, with its short right-field fence. One Giant in particular, outfielder
Mel Ott Melvin Thomas Ott (March 2, 1909 – November 21, 1958), nicknamed "Master Melvin", was an American professional baseball right fielder, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Giants, from through . He batted left-handed an ...
, was sometimes described as the master of the Chinese home run, since he hit many of his 511 career home runs (a National League record at the time of his retirement) to right field in the team's home stadium (although often to the upper deck) during his 1926–45 playing career. The association likely developed because not only did Ott not have the physique commonly associated with
power hitter Power hitter is a term used in baseball for a skilled player that has a higher than average ability in terms of his batting, featuring a combination of dexterity and personal strength that likely leads to a high number of home-runs as well as dou ...
s, he used an unusual batting technique. The outfielder preceded his swings by dropping his hands, lifting his front leg and stepping forward on it as the pitch came. Since that defied accepted baseball wisdom about how to hit home runs, it was assumed that Ott was focusing on the short right field fence, and sportswriters often kidded him about this. Ott, who worked on his technique extensively, usually responded that if it was so easy, other batters in the league should have been able to hit even more of those home runs when visiting the Giants. It has also been pointed out that Ott's best-known home run, which won his team the
1933 World Series The 1933 World Series was the championship series of the 1933 Major League Baseball season. The 30th edition of the World Series, it matched the National League (NL) pennant winner New York Giants and the American League (AL) pennant winner Wa ...
from the Washington Senators, was hit in
Griffith Stadium Griffith Stadium stood in Washington, D.C., from 1911 to 1965, between Georgia Avenue and 5th Street (left field), and between W Street and Florida Avenue NW. The site was once home to a wooden baseball park. Built in 1891, it was called Boundar ...
, not the Polo Grounds, and over a longer fence.


1954–1957: Dusty Rhodes

While
Bobby Thomson Robert Brown Thomson (October 25, 1923 – August 16, 2010) was a Scottish-born American professional baseball player, nicknamed the "Staten Island Scot". He was an outfielder and right-handed batter for the New York Giants (1946–53, 1957), M ...
's 1951 pennant-clinching " Shot Heard 'Round The World" has sometimes been described as a Chinese home run, the best-known such hit by a Giant in the Polo Grounds also won an extra-inning
World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...
game, and may have proved decisive in eventually winning that series for the Giants. In the 10th inning of Game 1 of the
1954 World Series The 1954 World Series matched the National League champion New York Giants against the American League champion Cleveland Indians. The Giants swept the Series in four games to win their first championship since , defeating the heavily favored Ind ...
against the heavily favored
Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive Fi ...
, Giants' manager
Leo Durocher Leo Ernest Durocher (French spelling Léo Ernest Durocher) (; July 27, 1905 – October 7, 1991), nicknamed "Leo the Lip" and "Lippy", was an American professional baseball player, manager and coach. He played in Major League Baseball as an infie ...
, on a hunch, sent in
Dusty Rhodes Virgil Riley Runnels Jr. (October 11, 1945 – June 11, 2015), better known as "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes, was an American professional wrestler, booker, and trainer who most notably worked for the National Wrestling Alliance, Jim Crocket ...
to
pinch hit In baseball, a pinch hitter is a substitute batter. Batters can be substituted at any time while the ball is dead (not in active play); the manager may use any player who has not yet entered the game as a substitute. Unlike basketball, Americ ...
for
Monte Irvin Monford Merrill "Monte" Irvin (February 25, 1919 – January 11, 2016) was an American left fielder and right fielder in the Negro leagues and Major League Baseball (MLB) who played with the Newark Eagles (1938–1942, 1946–1948), New York Giant ...
. The left-handed Rhodes hit a
walk-off home run In baseball, a walk-off home run is a home run that ends the game. For a home run to end the game, it must be hit in the bottom of the final inning of the game and generate enough runs to exceed the opponent's score. Because the opponent will no ...
just over the right field fence, giving the Giants the three runs they needed to win the game. The extensive media coverage led to discussions of both the term, such as Sheehan's in ''
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'', and Chinese home runs themselves. Since the late 1940s, there had been complaints from older fans that they were part of the decline of the game. "Ballplayers played ball in those days", said a writer in a 1948 column in the
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, ''
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''. "Now they pop a Chinese home run into an overhanging balcony and the crowd thinks it's wonderful". Two years later, Richard Maney included the Chinese home run among the failings of the postwar game in a ''Times'' piece. That 1954 game is chiefly remembered today for
Willie Mays Willie Howard Mays Jr. (born May 6, 1931), nicknamed "the Say Hey Kid" and "Buck", is a former center fielder in Major League Baseball (MLB). Regarded as one of the greatest players ever, Mays ranks second behind only Babe Ruth on most all-tim ...
' catch of a
Vic Wertz Victor Woodrow Wertz (February 9, 1925 – July 7, 1983) was an American professional baseball first baseman and outfielder. He had a 17-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career from 1947 to 1963. He played for the Detroit Tigers, St. Louis Brown ...
fly to deep center in the eighth inning, which broke up an Indians' rally that might otherwise have led to them winning the game. It had happened because of the distance of the Polo Grounds' fences in that area, its other peculiarity, which offset the advantage to hitters of its short right-field fence. The Indians attributed their upset loss to the park's unusual dimensions. "The longest out and the shortest home run of the season beat us, that's all", Indians manager
Al López Alfonso Ramón López (August 20, 1908 – October 30, 2005) was a Spanish-American professional baseball catcher and manager. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Brooklyn Robins / Dodgers, Boston Bees, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Cle ...
told ''
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''. The team was unable to recover psychologically, and the Giants swept them three games later. Sportswriters made much humor of the "Chinese" aspect of Rhodes' home run. One newspaper's photographer posed him reading a Chinese newspaper, apparently looking for an account of his hit. ''The New York Times'' called it "more Chinese than
chow mein ''Chow mein'' ( and , ; Pinyin: ''chǎomiàn'') is a Chinese dish made from stir-fried noodles with vegetables and sometimes meat or tofu. Over the centuries, variations of ''chǎomiàn'' were developed in many regions of China; there are s ...
and just as Chinese as
Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...
and Peiping". Dick Young extended this trope the furthest in his '' Daily News'' coverage: This unrestrained use of Chinese stereotypes, both in content and phrasing, drew a protest. Shavey Lee, long considered the unofficial "mayor" of New York's Chinatown, collected signatures on a
petition A petition is a request to do something, most commonly addressed to a government official or public entity. Petitions to a deity are a form of prayer called supplication. In the colloquial sense, a petition is a document addressed to some offi ...
(in Chinese) from himself and other members of the city's Chinese American community, demanding not just Young but ''all'' sportswriters stop using the term, and presented it to the Giants' secretary Eddie Brannick. "It isn't the fault of the Chinese if you have a 258-foot fence", he wrote. "Why should we be blamed all the time? What makes a cheesy home run a Chinese home run?" After Brannick posted it on the wall of the team's press room, Lee's petition earned him congratulatory letters from Chinese Americans all over the country, and became national news, earning time on the television series ''
What's the Story ''What's the Story'' is an American television panel show broadcast on the DuMont Television Network from July 25, 1951, to September 23, 1955, and aired in eleven different timeslots.Brooks, Tim & Marsh, Earle (1964). ''The Complete Directory to ...
''. Jack Orr, a '' Sporting News'' writer, went to Lee's restaurant and told him he was right to object. "Writers shouldn't be using that term", he said. "But what took you so long to get around to protesting?" Two years later, another New York sportswriter,
Jimmy Cannon Jimmy Cannon (April 10, 1909 – December 5, 1973) was a sports journalist inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame for his coverage of the sport. Early career Born in New York City, Cannon started at the New York Daily News when he ...
, noted when defining "Chinese home run" in a glossary of baseball terms he wrote for ''
Baseball Digest ''Baseball Digest'' is a baseball magazine resource, published in Orlando, Florida by Grandstand Publishing, LLC. It is the longest-running baseball magazine in the United States. History and profile It was created by Herbert F. Simons, a spor ...
'' that it "would probably be called something else if the Chinese had more influence". The Giants moved from the Polo Grounds to San Francisco at the end of the 1957 season. Chinese home runs were once again a subject of discussion, with many writers recalling short shots like Thomson's and Rhodes' as a quirk of the former stadium now lost to baseball. Writing in ''The New York Times'' as spring training was underway,
Gay Talese Gaetano "Gay" Talese (; born February 7, 1932) is an American writer. As a journalist for ''The New York Times'' and ''Esquire'' magazine during the 1960s, Talese helped to define contemporary literary journalism and is considered, along with ...
wrote that Giants' players in their new home missed the "cheap (or Chinese) home runs ... legal nonetheless".


1958–1961: Los Angeles Coliseum

Another park quickly took over the Polo Grounds' reputation for Chinese home runs. New York City's other National League team, the Brooklyn Dodgers, had also moved to the West Coast for the 1958 season, where they played their first home games in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Built for the 1932 Olympics, it had mainly been used for football since then. Its field was well-suited for that sport and the track and field events it had been designed for, but putting a baseball diamond in it was awkward. The left-field fence was only from the plate, even shorter than right had been at the Polo Grounds. As often as the Polo Grounds had seen short home runs to right, the Coliseum could have potentially seen even more short homers to left due to the majority of batters being right-handed. Before the
regular season In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of ...
even began, players from other teams were complaining about it. Giants'
pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...
Johnny Antonelli John August Antonelli (April 12, 1930 – February 28, 2020) was an American professional baseball player, a left-handed starting pitcher who played for the Boston / Milwaukee Braves, New York / San Francisco Giants, and Cleveland Indians betw ...
called it a "farce".
Warren Spahn Warren Edward Spahn (April 23, 1921 – November 24, 2003) was an American professional baseball pitcher who played 21 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). A left-handed pitcher, Spahn played in 1942 and then from 1946 until 1965, most notabl ...
,
ace An ace is a playing card, die or domino with a single pip. In the standard French deck, an ace has a single suit symbol (a heart, diamond, spade, or club) located in the middle of the card, sometimes large and decorated, especially in the c ...
for the defending World Series champion Milwaukee Braves, suggested that a rule be established requiring that all fences be at least 300 feet (91 m) from the plate. Owner
Walter O'Malley Walter Francis O'Malley (October 9, 1903 – August 9, 1979) was an American sports executive who owned the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers team in Major League Baseball from 1950 to 1979. In 1958, as owner of the Dodgers, he brought major league b ...
ordered that a wire mesh screen be put up behind the left field fence. "We don't want to acquire a reputation for Chinese home runs", he said. Sports media, particularly back in New York, charged that O'Malley was destroying the game for the sake of ticket sales. ''
Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twi ...
'' titled a critical editorial "Every Sixth Hit a Homer!", expressing concern that
Babe Ruth George Herman "Babe" Ruth Jr. (February 6, 1895 – August 16, 1948) was an American professional baseball player whose career in Major League Baseball (MLB) spanned 22 seasons, from 1914 through 1935. Nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Su ...
's record of 60 home runs during a season might easily fall to a less worthy hitter in the coming season due to the Dodgers' short fence. An Associated Press (AP) poll of baseball writers found that a majority believed that any home run records set mainly in the Coliseum should carry an asterisk. As had happened with Rhodes' home run four years earlier, the Chinese-themed joking around the short fence continued. The screen was called the "Chinese screen" or the "
Great Wall of China The Great Wall of China (, literally "ten thousand ''li'' wall") is a series of fortifications that were built across the historical northern borders of ancient Chinese states and Imperial China as protection against various nomadic gro ...
", and the Coliseum as a whole became known as "O'Malley's Chinese Theatre", "The House that Charlie Chan Built", or even, in one
Willard Mullin Willard Mullin (September 14, 1902 – December 20, 1978) was an American sports cartoonist. He is most famous for his creation of the "Brooklyn Bum", the personification of the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team, based on circus clown Emmett K ...
cartoon, "Flung Wong O'Malley's Little Joss House in Los Angeles". ''The Sporting News'', contrary to the preseason trend, editorialized that it could not yet be said that the short wall would adversely affect the game. But on the cover of that issue (which also included Spink's
etymological Etymology () The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the form of words a ...
investigation) it put a cartoon showing an outsized Chinese
coolie A coolie (also spelled koelie, kuli, khuli, khulie, cooli, cooly, or quli) is a term for a low-wage labourer, typically of South Asian or East Asian descent. The word ''coolie'' was first popularized in the 16th century by European traders acros ...
hanging over the Coliseum's back fence. The Chinese American community in the Los Angeles area made its objections known. At first the worst fears of the media appeared justified. In the first week of play at the Coliseum, 24 home runs were hit, most of them over the left field fence and screen. Chicago Cubs outfielder
Lee Walls Raymond Lee Walls Jr. (January 6, 1933 – October 11, 1993) was an American professional baseball player, an outfielder who appeared in Major League Baseball (MLB) between and as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds ...
, not especially distinguished as a hitter, was responsible for three of them—in a single game.
Baseball Commissioner The Commissioner of Baseball is the chief executive officer of Major League Baseball (MLB) and the associated Minor League Baseball (MiLB) – a constellation of leagues and clubs known as "organized baseball". Under the direction of the Commiss ...
Ford Frick Ford Christopher Frick (December 19, 1894 – April 8, 1978) was an American sportswriter and baseball executive. After working as a teacher and as a sportswriter for the ''New York American'', he served as public relations director of the Natio ...
, who had defended the Coliseum's dimensions during the preseason, quickly proposed that a second, mesh screen be established in the stands at from the plate, with any balls that fell between the two a
ground rule double A ground rule double is a baseball rule that awards two bases from the time of pitch to all baserunners including the batter-runner, as a result of the ball leaving play after being hit fairly and leaving the field under a condition of the gro ...
; however, that turned to be impossible under earthquake-safety provisions of the Los Angeles building code. Pitchers soon adjusted. They threw outside to right-handed hitters, requiring them to
pull Pull may refer to: Sports *In baseball, a pull hitter is a batter who usually hits the ball to the side of the field from which he bats * Pull shot, a batting stroke in cricket * A phase of a swim stroke * A throw-off in the sport of ultimate (o ...
hard for the left-field fence, and as at the Polo Grounds, a deep fence in right center () challenged lefties, and over the course of the season the home run count at the Coliseum declined to the same level as other National League parks. At the end of the season, ''The Sporting News'' noted, there had been only 21 more home runs in the Coliseum than there were in the smaller
Ebbets Field Ebbets Field was a Major League Baseball stadium in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York. It is mainly known for having been the home of the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team of the National League (1913–1957). It was also home to five pro ...
, where the Dodgers had played in
Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
. During the off-season, Frick announced a rule change stipulating that any new stadium built for major-league play must have all its fences at least from home plate, as Spahn had suggested. This was widely viewed as a response to the preseason controversy. The only hitter to truly benefit from the short left-field fence was
Wally Moon Wallace Wade MoonSteve Springer"Dodgers' Moon found success in Coliseum" ''Los Angeles Times'', March 23, 2008. (April 3, 1930 – February 9, 2018) was an American professional baseball outfielder in Major League Baseball. Moon played his 12-yea ...
, a left-handed outfielder who began playing for the Dodgers the next season. He figured out how to lift balls high enough so that they dropped down, almost vertically, just beyond the screen. This brought him 37 of his 49 homers during the three seasons that he played in the Coliseum. He was not accused of exploiting the short distance to the fence for Chinese home runs. Instead, he was celebrated for his inventiveness; similar home runs have since been called " Moon shots" in his honor. Game 5 of that year's World Series, ultimately won by the Dodgers over the
Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and ...
, would be the last postseason
Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
game played at the Coliseum. After two more seasons at the Coliseum, the Dodgers moved to
Dodger Stadium Dodger Stadium is a baseball stadium in the Elysian Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. It is the home stadium of Major League Baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers. Opened in 1962, it was constructed in less than three years at a cost of ...
in 1962, where they have played home games since. After the then– Los Angeles Angels' first
American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league ...
season in 1961, the club asked for a new home in the Los Angeles area, initially asking if they could play in the Coliseum. Frick refused. In 2008, to celebrate their 50th anniversary in Los Angeles, the Dodgers played a preseason exhibition game at the Coliseum against the
Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eigh ...
, losing by a score of 7–1. The wire mesh screen was restored, this time at the height Frick had sought because an additional section of seats had been added there since 1959, shortening left field to . A Dodgers executive noted that it mimicked the
Green Monster The Green Monster is a popular nickname for the left field wall at Fenway Park, home to the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball. The wall is from home plate and is a popular target for right-handed hitters. Overview The wall was part ...
in left field at
Fenway Park Fenway Park is a baseball stadium located in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, near Kenmore Square. Since 1912, it has been the home of the Boston Red Sox, the city's American League baseball team, and since 1953, its only Major League Bas ...
, the Red Sox' home field.


1962–63: Return of the Polo Grounds

In 1962, baseball returned to the Polo Grounds when the National League created the
New York Mets The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. They are one of two major league ...
as an expansion team, to replace the Giants and Dodgers. The new team used the old stadium for two seasons while
Shea Stadium Shea Stadium (), formally known as William A. Shea Municipal Stadium, was a multi-purpose stadium in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, Queens, New York City.
was built out in the
Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...
neighborhood of
Flushing Flushing may refer to: Places * Flushing, Cornwall, a village in the United Kingdom * Flushing, Queens, New York City ** Flushing Bay, a bay off the north shore of Queens ** Flushing Chinatown (法拉盛華埠), a community in Queens ** Flushin ...
. The Mets lost the franchise's first six games at the Giants' former home, on their way to a 40–120 record, still the most losses in a major-league season, but in those games they and their opponents hit ten home runs apiece. Sportswriters took notice, and one AP writer picked up where Dick Young had left off eight years before: "So solly, honorable sir. Chinese home run not buried in Coliseum. Making big comeback in honorable ancient Polo Grounds". While the team's poor play and last-place finishes in its two seasons in the Polo Grounds left few individual home runs over the right-field fence to become the subject of popular comment and mockery as Rhodes' had, the term was still in use during the team's radio broadcasts, as Yale professor Dana Brand recalled in his 2007 memoir, ''Mets Fan'': Problems in completing Shea Stadium forced the Mets to stay one season more. At one point during the season, manager
Casey Stengel Charles Dillon "Casey" Stengel (; July 30, 1890 – September 29, 1975) was an American Major League Baseball right fielder and manager, best known as the manager of the championship New York Yankees of the 1950s and later, the expansion New Y ...
alluded to the short home runs when berating pitcher Tracy Stallard. "At the end of this season they're gonna tear this place down", he reminded Stallard as he took him out of a game in which he had given up several home runs. "The way you're pitching, that right field section is gone already". In April 1964, the Polo Grounds were demolished and replaced with a public housing project.


1965–present: Disuse

Use of the term largely faded out afterwards, and it was seen as offensive. In 1981 ''San Francisco Chronicle'' columnist
Herb Caen Herbert Eugene Caen (; April 3, 1916 February 1, 1997) was a San Francisco humorist and journalist whose daily column of local goings-on and insider gossip, social and political happenings, and offbeat puns and anecdotes—"A continuous love le ...
criticized
Oakland A's The Oakland Athletics (often referred to as the A's) are an American professional baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The te ...
radio announcer
Bill King Wilbur "Bill" King (October 6, 1927 – October 18, 2005) was an American sports announcer. In 2016, the National Baseball Hall of Fame named King recipient of the 2017 Ford C. Frick Award, the highest honor for American baseball broadcasters. ...
for saying a
Bobby Murcer Bobby Ray Murcer (May 20, 1946 – July 12, 2008) was an American professional baseball outfielder who played 17 seasons in Major League Baseball between 1965 and 1983. He played the majority of his career for the New York Yankees, whom he later ...
shot was "not a Chinese home run". Caen called the remark "racist" and wrote: "I'm sure he has heard from militant Oriental groups, all of which hit hard". That sentiment was revived in 2015 when Kansas City Royals announcers
Ryan Lefebvre Ryan Lefebvre (; born February 12, 1971) is an American sportscaster, best known as a play-by-play announcer for Major League Baseball's Kansas City Royals since 1999. In 2008, he became the primary announcer for Royals' television broadcasts on B ...
and
Rex Hudler Rex Allen Hudler (born September 2, 1960) is an American former Major League Baseball utility player and color commentator for the Kansas City Royals. He played a total of 14 seasons after being a first round draft pick of the New York Yankees i ...
used it in reference to a long foul ball. After a fan in the outfield stands made a considerable effort to retrieve one such ball hit into the stands by Indians catcher Brett Hayes, the two briefly recalled that a "Monty" (speculated to be Jeff Montgomery, co-host of the team's pregame show), had referred to it as a "Chinese home run" the previous night (although not on the air). Stephen Douglas of ''
The Big Lead ''The Big Lead'' is an American news blog. The website mainly covers sports news, although it also touches on a varying degree of other news topics ranging from politics to pop culture. Launched on February 24, 2006, it was co-founded by former ...
'' criticized them for this, recalling the term's past and said it was "time for Royals broadcasters to retire the term from their vocabulary permanently. Both on the air and in private", an admonition echoed by '' ThePostGame''.


Secondary definition

Dickson found another usage, referring to a high foul ball that travels a great distance, usually behind home plate. In Stephen King's 1980 short story " The Monkey", anthologized five years later in ''
Skeleton Crew A skeleton crew is the minimum number of personnel needed to operate and maintain an item such as a business, organization, or ship at its most simple operating requirements. Skeleton crews are often utilized during an emergency and are meant to ...
'', the protagonists' father recalls days watching sandlot games during his own childhood, when he "was too small to play, but he sat far out in foul territory sucking his blueberry Popsicle and chasing what the big kids called 'Chinese home runs'". Dickson wrote to King, who told him two years later that he had first heard the term when learning to play baseball in his own childhood, during a time when he lived, briefly, in Stratford, Connecticut. After he returned to his native
Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and ...
in 1958, the same year the Giants and Dodgers moved west, he recalled hearing it again. "In both cases", he told Dickson, "a Chinese home run was a foul ball, usually over the backstop". Dickson concluded from his correspondence that that use may well be limited to
New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the Can ...
. According to Dickson, one of the etymologies submitted to Joe Falls' ''Sporting News'' column, by a
St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
man named Tom Becket, may explain this usage. "In this version, the term harks back to the turn of the 20th century and a game played in
Salem, Massachusetts Salem ( ) is a historic coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, located on the North Shore of Greater Boston. Continuous settlement by Europeans began in 1626 with English colonists. Salem would become one of the most significant seaports tr ...
, between teams of
Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
and Polish immigrants". The game was close, and went deep into
extra innings Extra innings is the extension of a baseball or softball game in order to break a tie. Ordinarily, a baseball game consists of nine regulation innings (in softball and high school baseball games there are typically seven innings; in Little Lea ...
. By the 17th inning, only one ball was left. A
shortstop Shortstop, abbreviated SS, is the baseball or softball fielding position between second and third base, which is considered to be among the most demanding defensive positions. Historically the position was assigned to defensive specialists wh ...
named
Chaney Chaney is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Cassius Chaney (born 1987), American boxer * Charles "Bubba" Chaney (born 1946), American politician * Chris Chaney, American musician * Darrel Chaney, American baseball player * Do ...
, playing for the Irish team, fouled the ball deep into unmowed grass and weeds behind the backstop. After searching through it for 20 minutes, the
umpire An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The term derives from the Old French nonper, ''non'', "not" and ''per'', ...
gave up and declared that the Polish team had forfeited the game since it had failed to provide enough balls. "So the cheer went up, 'Chaney's home run won the game!'", Becket explained. " Various misunderstandings as to dialects eventually brought it around to the now-familiar 'Chinese home run'". Unlike the primary meaning, this usage has persisted into the 21st century. In discussing the etymology of the French Canadian dish known as Chinese pie, poet Paul Marion, a native of
Lowell, Massachusetts Lowell () is a city in Massachusetts, in the United States. Alongside Cambridge, It is one of two traditional seats of Middlesex County. With an estimated population of 115,554 in 2020, it was the fifth most populous city in Massachusetts as of ...
, suggests it "may be a crass old joke like a Chinese home run over the backstop". Five years later, Phil Solomon, a writer for the ''
Patch Patch or Patches may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Patch Johnson, a fictional character from ''Days of Our Lives'' * Patch (''My Little Pony''), a toy * "Patches" (Dickey Lee song), 1962 * "Patches" (Chairmen of the Board song) ...
'' local news website covering
Port Jefferson, New York Port Jefferson (informally known as "Port Jeff") is an incorporated village in the town of Brookhaven in Suffolk County, New York, on the North Shore of Long Island. Officially known as the Incorporated Village of Port Jefferson, the population ...
, discusses both meanings in condemning the use of "Chinese auction". "The term is rarely used these days. It is not politically correct. It was used to describe a foul ball that went over the backstop", he writes, observing also that "you old baseball fans will remember the Chinese home runs in the Polo Grounds".


See also

*
Baseball in China Sport in China has been long associated with the martial arts. Today, China (including mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau) consists of a variety of competitive sports. Traditional Chinese culture regards physical fitness as an important chara ...
* Chinese fire drill, another derogatory term from the early 20th century that has survived that era *
Glossary of baseball This is an alphabetical list of selected unofficial and specialized terms, phrases, and other jargon used in baseball, along with their definitions, including illustrative examples for many entries. ...
*
Left-arm unorthodox spin Left-arm unorthodox spin, also known as slow left-arm wrist-spin, is a type of spin bowling in the sport of cricket. Left-arm unorthodox spin bowlers use wrist spin to spin the ball, and make it deviate, or 'turn' from left to right after pitchin ...
, a
cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...
bowling Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). The term ''bowling'' usually refers to pin bowling (most commonly ten-pin bowling), thou ...
technique sometimes referred to as a Chinaman, supposedly after an early player to use it


Notes


References

{{Baseball Baseball terminology Pejorative terms New York Giants (NL)