After a brief hiatus, it’s time to open up the mailbag and answer a few more mysteries:Joseph in Nashville: What does the term five o’clock hitter mean?
As the great philosopher James Buffet once said, “it’s five o’clock somewhere.” Unfortunately for some hitters, that’s just not comforting enough. When a player is dubbed a “five o’clock hitter,” it means he absolutely crushes pitches all over the field…during batting practice. When game time rolls around and he steps up to the plate, the results are far less appealing.
Several variations of the term are used including 10 o’clock hitter, four o’clock hitter, and a few others, depending on the start time of the game. Most games start around seven o’clock, so five o’clock is the usual time for batting practice.
Becca in Orlando: Where does the term “Around the Horn” come from?
Great question, Becca. Two scenarios can be described as throwing the ball “around the horn.” The first is when a double play is turned starting with the third baseman to second base to first base. The second comes after a pitcher records a strikeout with no runners on base, and the ball is thrown around the infield and eventually back to the pitcher in order to keep the infielders’ arms warm.
The term originally came from sailing, much like many old-fashioned baseball idioms. Before the Panama Canal was built, the fastest way to sail from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean was to go around Cape Horn, the southernmost tip of South America. So, when a baseball is thrown “around the horn,” it travels in a similar pattern to a ship traveling around Cape Horn. In addition, the shape of the baseball diamond could be viewed as an animal’s horn, but I prefer the sailing reference.
Danielle in St. Louis: Why do they play “Sweet Caroline” by Neil Diamond during the eighth inning at Fenway Park?
It looks like Special Investigative Assistant Steve found a pretty good answer to this one in the Hardball Mysteries “Comments” section. He points us to this site for our answer: http://www.redsoxconnection.com/sweetcaroline.html. Thanks, Steve.
It turns out it was just a random song choice one night by the music director at Fenway Park that turned into a good luck charm after a few wins. When a new ownership group (apparently all members of the Neil Diamond fan club) took over in 2002, they asked for it to be played after the eighth inning during every game.
Not that this answer was boring, but was I the only one hoping for a bizarre story about Neil Diamond giving the Red Sox a song-filled pep talk while wearing one of his patented sequined shirts which led to the song being played every game after that? Hmm, maybe I was the only one. Ironically, the “Jewish Elvis” has publicly stated that he’s actually a lifelong Yankees fan.
But with the help of the movie "Fever Pitch" and the success of the Red Sox in the past few years, the song has become a staple of Boston baseball culture and has spread to other ballparks and sportings events, even our very own Greer Stadium during Sounds games. In fact, after his cell phone went off during a press conference in 2007, it was discovered that Detroit Tigers’ manager Jim Leyland’s ringtone is “Sweet Caroline.”
After keeping the inspiration for the song under wraps for more than 35 years, Diamond finally revealed that Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of John F. Kennedy, was the “sweet Caroline” that he was singing about in 2007. She was only 11 years old at the time the song was written in 1969.
I’m not gonna lie Neil, that’s kind of weird. But you’re still totally awesome in my book.
Just look at you.
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