The hometown newspaper of Escondido, California

By News Desk | on July 14, 2022

What’s in a name? Specifically, speaking of sports of all sorts. A recent column in the U-T got me thinking of how some sports were given a name. We start with baseball. A ball is pitched to a player holding a bat who tries to hit the incoming sphere. When he, or she, makes contact the player then runs to and hopefully around bases placed in a diamond shape. Ergo, the infield is called the “diamond.” But, the name of the game is baseball because bases and balls are the game ,hence the name of the game. Makes sense don’t you think? Then a guy decided to throw a leather ball through a peach basket placed ten feet off the ground. Thus, the game was called “basketball’ with the object of the game to make baskets gaining two points, sometimes three points, every time the ball went through the basket. Of course, the wicker basket has long been replaced by an iron rim with nylon cord attached to it. The name then makes sense, right? How about football. The original game, futbal, used one’s foot to move a round ball forward and also with any part of the body except the hands. In the USA, the name was used for a game where a foot again kicked a ball, changed to an oblong ball, but we added using the hands is actually required. So, American football is acceptable. The name volleyball makes sense in that a ball is volleyed over a net until one team cannot return the volley. Handball and racquetball are similar examples where the name describes the game, however badminton, tennis, and ping pong do not describe the particular game. Which brings me to my main point in giving you all this trivia. Pickle ball. Richard Lederer, whom I refer to as the word wizard, wrote about pickle ball keeping the embers lit in the discussions about the fastest growing sport in America. About five years ago, after hearing about this game, I suggested the City construct some courts albeit at the expense of tennis courts. When I researched the history of PB I found that the guy created a game combining aspects of tennis, wiffle ball, badminton and ping pong and named it after his dog Pickles. Ah, but Lederer says uh uh. He claims the name of the game actually came from the Pickle Boat in crew where oarsmen were chosen from the leftovers of other boats. According to his research, a pet dog joining the family two years later was named Pickles being named for the game. So the saga and success of Pickle Ball continues. I haven’t written Lederer but my daughter-in-law was in varsity crew at Cal Poly SLO and never heard the term. Oh, speaking of games, do kids still play marbles? In elementary school one of our favorite spring and summer pastimes was playing marbles—another game whose name describes it. Very easy game to play. We just needed a patch of dirt, drew a circle and used a skill acquired to shoot your marble with your hand to knock another marble out of the circle; thus claiming that marble as the goal. BTW, if you are still reading this…bless you. It was great to see Larry Lucchino and Ted Leitner be inducted into the Padres Hall of Fame, finally. Both are giants in Padre history. Lucchino for bringing a new old feel baseball park, Petco, to downtown San Diego and Leitner for 40 years of outstanding radio and TV announcing Padres, Aztecs and uh Charger games and creating much discussion among sports fans everywhere. I thought about what would Jerry Coleman and Leitner have to say about the new Padre uniforms. That would be a broadcast like no other. Better than Leitner asking Coleman, “What’d you do today?” The other day I watched Ken Kramer About San Diego on PBS. One portion highlighted the Antique and Gas Steam Engine Museum in Vista. What was interesting was him pointing out two such farm machines from Escondido. Rube Nelson’s old steam engine is there along with an engine from the VonSegern Ranch. I believe Escondido’s agriculture is more prominent than that of Vista but, alas, no museum to exhibit our history. This reminded me of the time I spoke with Eddie Grangetto years ago about creating a museum in the old Ice House on Metcalf St. Interesting, historical building. “The officer said, ‘you drinking?’ I said, ‘you buying?’ We just laughed and laughed…I need bail money.” —Author unknown. Last week I communicated with a friend of over 40 years about a vanity plate he recognized and during the discussion I mentioned I had published his DRMOUTH which he has owned since 1979. In researching my list I did not find it so perhaps I did not publish it so here it is now. Could possibly be my first duplicate. Here’s more. MPC DR, SAVMESM, BLU9NGT, MTBRUNR, 4 Runner. As always, stay well as this virus stuff isn’t giving up.

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