The Baseball Thesaurus

Sluggers deposit a Ballantine Blast in the nosebleeds. The top of the lineup sets the table for the heart of the order. Corner infielders guard the line. A lumberjack with a bad wheel staggers down the line while a glovesman flashes leather.


Baseball is a sport with its own lingo and jargon -- a colorful patois that’s developed over the years and millions of games. In this fascinating compendium of baseball terms, Jesse Goldberg-Strassler -- broadcaster, storyteller, talker, voice -- explains what baseball terms mean and how they came to be. Whether it’s Red Smith talking about the pea patch or Ernie Harwell discussing no-hitters, the language of America’s Pastime is brilliantly captured by Goldberg-Strassler.


Who should read The Baseball Thesaurus? It’s for the media linguist whose job relies upon baseball jargon, the radio listener, the blog reader, the talk-show caller, the minor-league diehard, the Strat-O-Matic connoisseur, the seventh-inning stretcher, the stereotype breaker, the crank, the postgame fireworks enthusiast, the t-ball coach, the seamhead, the baseball Annie, the hot-stove moper, the bandwagoner, the purist, the casual rooter who enjoys a quick tidbit and has no need to attend both games of a doubleheader, and the fan who takes pride in scoring the game and teaching the tradition to others.


“For fans old and new, Jesse Goldberg-Strassler’s thesaurus is a romp. On first glance, it’s a primer on baseball’s peculiar taxonomy and traditions, but open any page and you’ll find lots more, including amusing anecdotes and witty wordplay from the game’s great characters. Goldberg-Strassler has built a dugout in which Al Capone, James Earl Jones, and George Carlin lounge happily alongside Dizzy Dean, Cool Papa Bell, and Zoilo Versalles. A lollygagger’s delight!” – John Lott, baseball writer, National Post, Toronto 


“What an incredible resource – I can’t get over the amount of work – and the detail – that went into this book. A great window on baseball’s lexicon from days of yore – to the game today. This book won’t be far from my side next season.” – Dan Dickerson, Voice of the Detroit Tigers


A native of Greenbelt, Maryland, Jesse Goldberg-Strassler graduated from Ithaca College in 2004. After broadcasting for the back-to-back Southern League Champion Montgomery Biscuits in 2006-2007, he joined the Frontier League Champion Windy City ThunderBolts in 2008 and was named a Runner-Up for Ballpark Digest’s Broadcaster of the Year. Goldberg-Strassler currently serves as the voice of the Lansing Lugnuts and writes about baseball for Ballparkdigest.com.