6 more useful American baseball idioms and a song (Part 4)

This is our final video on baseball idioms. You'll learn some great new expressions.

And you'll learn a song. Come on. Let's get going.

The wonderful thing about baseball is you never know what will happen.

Every game is different. It's a new game with new possibilities.

We need an idea for a sales promotion. Let's have a competition.

We had one last year. And nobody entered. Forget last year. It'll be very different this time

. We do have a lot of new products this year.

Exactly. It'll be a whole new ball game. Hmmm. A whole new ball game? Yes, it means a completely

different situation - totally new. Now we'd better tell everyone about home plate.

It's a piece of white rubber and it has five sides.

It marks the place where the batter stands. Yes, home plate is where a lot of the action

starts. When a batter steps up to the plate...Hang on

There's another idiom. We've got a problem. The website went down

three times last week. Yes, I'm afraid the webmaster quit. There

are problems with the code, but we have no control over that.

Well, who's responsible then? Somebody's gotta fix it.

Yes, fix the code. It's quite a challenge. Well, who's going to do it?

What? Me? Don't worry Christina. Jay will fix it.

It's a wonderful challenge for him. He can't wait to start.

Excellent. Thanks for stepping up to the plate, Jay. Bye now everyone.

But I don't know anything about website code. So to step up to the plate means to take on

the responsibility for something. Yes, when the batter steps up to the plate,

they rise to a challenge. Now how many chances does the batter get to

hit the ball, Jay. Well, it depends. They can only get three

strikes. Now I'm the batter. The strike zone is from

my chest to my knees. If the pitcher throws a ball and it's in the

strike zone and I don't swing, that's a strike. If I swing and miss, that's a strike too.

Three strikes and you're out. That's another idiom!

You were two hours late this morning. Yeah. And you were two hours late last Wednesday.

Yeah, sorry. That's two strikes. If you're late again,

you're out. You'd fire me? Yes. Three strikes and you're out.

So a strike is a kind of failure. That's right,

and you're only allowed to fail three times. After that, you're out.

Now tell us about left field and right field. Left field is a long way from first base.

It's hard to throw the ball to first base from left field.

So it's surprising when balls come out of left field. Yeah.

We have big plans for you, Graham. We're going to give you a promotion.

You're going to be our sales manager for all of Asia.

Gee, I'm sorry guys, but I quit. You're resigning? Yeah, I got a better job.

But we had everything planned! Wow! That came out of left field.

So something out of left field is surprising. Yep. It's odd or strange. It's often something

bad too. We don't expect balls to come from left field.

They're unconventional. Yep. When ideas are crazy or eccentric, we

might say they came out of left field. So is it the same with right field? No, that's

a little different. Right field is a quiet place. Nothing much happens there.

How long have you been working here, Jay? Twenty seven years.

And you've always had the same job? Yep. You've never had a promotion? No.

Sounds like you're stuck out in right field. Yep.

So if you're stuck in right field, nothing much happens. Yeah, if you're in right field,

you're disconnected from the action. I've heard a lot of these basball idioms used

in British business conversations as well. And some of them are similar to cricket. But

some of them were a whole new ball game for me too.

We hope you find them useful. Yeah, we hope they help you hit it out of the park.

We'll be batting for you. Batting for you? Yes, we'll be on your side, rooting for you.

Rooting for you? Yeah, you root for your favorite team. You mean you support them.

Yeah, like I root for the Phillies. Root, root, root for the home team, if they

don't win it's a shame. And it's one, two, three strikes you're out

at the old ball game.