Welcome to Baseball in French, Lesson 5. Previous lessons can be found here.
Today's term is l'amorti.
In English, that translates to "the cushioning". What's the baseball translation?
Bunt.
Here are three Expos fan favorites, showing off their "cushioning" skills.
All three guys had speed, and all three could lay 'em down. Unfortunately I don't think Major League Baseball keeps track of bunt singles separately from regular singles, so I couldn't tell you how many each guy totaled for his career. But I can tell you how many career sacrifice bunts each had:
Raines: 39
Grissom: 38
DeShields: 57
And here's the pitch. DeShields cushions it up the third-base line and sprints out of the box. . . the throw to first. . . not in time!
I'm just so accustomed to "bunt" being the word for it that anything else seems a bit odd. But when you think about it, "cushion" is a pretty good description of what's going on. I guess it's similar to an American broadcaster saying "pushes it up the line", or "taps it down the line".
What are your thoughts on l'amorti?
Share in the comment section, and thanks for reading.
