5 more useful American baseball idioms (Part 3)

Welcome back to our third video on baseball idioms. Baseball is such a great game.

If you can understand it.

Baseball's really popular in the United States.

Everyone loves a trip to the ballpark. Ballpark. It's part of our first idiom.

How much will you need to fix the roof. I don't know. There's materials, paint, labor.

Well, just give me a ballpark figure. Maybe five thousand dollars. What?

A ballpark figure. It's an estimate. So many people attend a big game that it's hard to

count them accurately. So a ballpark figure is a rough estimate of

a big number. Yes, basball crowds are large. The thing is

everyone grows up playing baseball here. There are lots of little leagues. Leagues

- we have them in football too. Soccer. Leagues are groups of teams that play one

another. Yeah. Kids play in little leagues and professional players play in the big leagues.

Big leagues! Another idiom. Oh boy, have we got a problem. We'd better

hire a lawyer. We'd better hire a big league lawyer.

So what's a big league lawyer? A very important one. They operate at the top level.

They know how to play hard ball. Hard ball? You can play baseball with a hard or a soft

ball. Hard balls are dangerous so kids learn to

play with softballs. It's a lot of money. Everyone wants to win

this contract. The competition will be tough. Yep, they'll be playing hard ball.

So if someone plays hard ball? It means they're strong, experienced and willing to take risks.

So to play hard ball is to play tough. Maybe aggressively. Baseball can be a dangerous game.

Now here's another idiom with the word 'league'.

Everybody say hey! What are you watching? Oh I love this video that Jason made.

Me too. He's fantastic in it. Yeah, he's in a league of his own.

If you're in a league of your own you're exceptional. Yeah, you're too good even for the top team.

Now statistics are important in baseball, aren't they. Yes, we have batting averages.

If a batter has a perfect record for hitting the ball, they get a batting average of a

thousand. I've been reviewing everyone's sales figures.

Vicki, your results are excellent. Thank you. You've been our top salesperson every month

this year. You're batting a thousand. Batting a thousand.

Now Jay. It's been a difficult year for me. I can see that. You're in a slump.

So batting a thousand. That's the maximum possible. You can't do better than that.

And if a batter is in a slump? Their statistics have been very bad.

OK. It's time to stop but we hope these idioms will help you bat a thousand.

And come back soon and we'll have another baseball idioms video.

What are you eating? Oh. Crackerjacks. People eat them at ball games. Would you like some?

Oh yes please. Here we go. They're like in the song. Buy me some peanuts and crackerjacks.

You know we should teach them the song in the next video. Yeah. It's like popcorn. Yep.