Welcome to Baseball in French, Lesson 3. Previous lessons can be found here.
Today's term is le frappeur d'urgence.
In English, that translates to "emergency hitter". What's the baseball translation?
Pinch hitter.
Here's one of the best pinch-hitters of all time, proudly wearing the Expos colors on his 1971 O-Pee-Chee card.
Staub, popularly known in Montreal as Le Grande Orange for his ginger hair, put up exactly 100 pinch hits over his career, which at the time of this writing puts him at 19th on the all-time list. He's tied for the most pinch-hit RBI in a season (25) with Joe Cronin and Jerry Lynch.
"Emergency hitter" is just a little too dramatic for me. It's not like you're in a Bugs Bunny cartoon where all your teammates are getting trounced so badly that they're being carried off the field on stretchers, and you've got to find someone from the crowd to go bat for the team.
How about you? Do you prefer pinch hitter or emergency hitter? Leave a comment below, and thanks for reading!
Pinch Hitter for me, but I think it's because that's what I'm used to. 25 pinch-hit RBIs in a season is awesome. Mike Brousseau (sounds like a French name) led the MLB in 2022 with 12 pinch-hit RBIs.
ReplyDeleteRight? Talk about coming through when the team needs you!
DeleteI think translating it back to English as "Frapper of Urgence" would be awesome!
ReplyDeleteAgreed, Brett! Next time I'm watching a game and a pinch hitter comes up, maybe I'll yell out "Frapper of Urgence!" just to see how everyone around me reacts.
DeleteHmm, interesting question. "Pinch" hitter seems to work well enough, but it's fun to consider renaming positions - like when "Disabled List" became "Injured List" or "Defensive End" became "Edge Rusher"...
ReplyDeleteHow about "Relief Hitter?" Makes sense, consider that's what a replacement/substitute pitcher is called. But if our options are 'pinch' or 'emergency' I'll stick with the status quo.
"Relief Hitter" does make some sense. With all the goofy rule changes lately, maybe MLB will allow each team to carry a specialized relief hitter on their roster for the sole purpose of coming into the game late and getting a hit. The guy would have to be super-clutch, though. And he wouldn't be permitted to start any games. Hah.
DeleteIsn't that just like the French, always being overly dramatic.
ReplyDeleteHeheh. The drama comes out in a few other French-language baseball terms as well. Stay tuned.
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