| 词汇 | play hardball |
| 词源 | play hardball. Baseball was popularly called hardball in the early days of the game. A change in the rules—so that runners were tagged to be declared out rather than being hit with the ball—prompted a change from the soft ball formerly used to a hard one. There was never an official game called hardball, but, at least from the 1930s to 1960s, the term was common among kids in the Northeast and other areas to distinguish baseball from the game called softball. Softball is played with a larger ball (not nearly as hard on the hands for kids catching bare- handed) that can’t be hit as far; it is also officially played on a smaller field and the ball is pitched underhanded. Perhaps the term hardball we now use was born in the sandlots, but that is not certain. In any case, it gave birth in about 1944 to the ex- pression play hardball, which means to act or work aggressively, competitively, or ruthlessly, to play for keeps. Demeaning as it is to softball players, who can be just as serious and competi- tive as their “hardball” compatriots, the phrase lives on. |
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