Hallelujah! The Chicago White Sox are going to baseball's World Series!

It's about time. They haven't won the World Series pennant since 1917. That's the longest dry spell of any team in baseball – with one exception.

And what is that exception, you ask? Why, the Chicago Cubs, of course, who haven't won it since 1908. (Hey, any team can have a bad century!)

In fact, it's been 46 years since the White Sox have even qualified to participate in the World Series. Once again, that's the longest such dry spell of any baseball team – with one exception. And once again that exception is once again the Chicago Cubs, who haven't been to the series since the 1945s. Great town I live in, this Chicago.

---

How is this word-relevant, you ask?
For eleven years 1902-1912, back when the Cubs were strong, they featured a trio so fabled for skill at double-plays [Brits, that is a defensive play typically involving three people] that all three were inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1946. Joe Tinker would field the ball and toss it to Johnny Evers, who would then relay it to Frank Chance. Franklin P. Adams, the New York news columnist, bemoaned what their defensive prowess did to his beloved New York Giants team.

These are the saddest of possible words:
"Tinker to Evers to Chance."
Trio of bear cubs, and fleeter than birds,
Tinker and Evers and Chance.
Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble,
Making a Giant hit into a double--
Words that are weighty with nothing but trouble:
"Tinker to Evers to Chance."

I'd always thought gonfalon meant 'light and insubstantial', until I was reading our thread about Les Dégonflés, a term for "deflating". zmj noted that it comes from gonfler 'to inflate, swell up, blow up', which reminded me of 'gonfalon' in the poem. Really, the "inflate' concept fits wonderfully with the poem's phrase 'gonfalon bubble'. But sadly, when I looked up gonfalon I found that it means 'a pennant' and comes from an entirely different root.

Or so they say. But I wonder. Could there nonetheless be some etymological connection between gonfalon and 'inflating'?

quote:

the World Series pennant

I've never heard this expression before. Winning the pennant is winning your league, either the American League or the National League. Last night, the White Sox won the American League(AL) pennant, as I was shouting in my apartment, "The White Sox win the pennant!", over and over again, the AL part is assumed, since the White Sox are in the AL.

The World Series is something separate, and you would say, "The team won the World Series", in that exact way. You almost never hear, "The team won the Series", since every set of baseball games between two teams, from 1-7, is a series. You can then say, "World series champions", or just "World champions", since it is generally assumed that most of the best players in the world come to America to play.

Obviously there is a pennant for winning the World Series, but it is not "the pennant".

I too find this an awful misuse of the language.

I once read a book of politically correct fairy tales, which was so absurdly over done(on purpose) that it was hilarious. The word "women" was spelled differently, so not to have the "men" portion, and all other things like that were done in a non-masculine manner.

Sean, I don't disagree with you at all about the meaning of "the pennant". Classic example is the radio announcer's emotional-filled call after Bobby Thompson's "shot heard round the world": "The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!"

Back in February of 2003 we had a good discussion of how the term "World Series" developed...and about how it didn't develop. Be sure to scroll down to CJ's post because I think he is probably correct.

quote:

Originally posted by shufitz:
Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble

Maybe he meant granfaloon bubble.

Tinman

I thought the same thing Tinman, although the former predates the later by half a century.

zmjezhd has posted a saying from Candide: Tout est pour le mieux dans le meilleur des mondes. "All is for the best in the best of all worlds." A more common way of putting it (26,000+ ghits) is, "This is the best of all possible worlds."

I wonder if the baseball poem was making a take-off on that saying, when it began, "These are the saddest of possible words." The sports pages are not usually so erudite, but perhaps ...