Noncompositional

In an earlier post I pondered the felicity of phrases like tying run and go-ahead run in various situations in a baseball game. T. Carter replied, confirming that just about all the factors you might expect play a role: who is on base, up to bat, how each got there, and how late in the game it is.

It was pointed out to me that this final factor, which I originally conceived as lateness in the game, is better thought of as crucialness for the game. Thus in post-season games, where each run counts that much more, one is more likely to heard phrases like and now the go-ahead run is at the plate! This seems like an entirely reasonable observation. In fact, the whole point behind using phrases like these is that they frame the person on base/at bat not just as a person playing the game (no matter how effective a player they may be), but as the potential effector of a game-dynamics-changing play. It ratchets up the tension, gets the listener involved, makes the game more exciting. I’d be curious to know if coaches use phrases like this. My account would predict that they wouldn’t, first because there is no “audience” that must be excited into watching the game (the players are no doubt as focused as they’ll get), and second because wouldn’t that jinx the at-bat? Then again, I could be wrong, and maybe it’s common to slap a guy up onto the field with a “all right [name], you can put us back in the lead, just focus on the ball” or some such thing.