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My favorite among the titles we’ve reviewed for the September 1 issue of Reference Books Bulletin is the third edition of Paul Dickson’s Dickson Baseball Dictionary. The baseball reference shelf is already pretty full, what with all those statistical compilations. But make room for Dickson, which is baseball’s answer to the  Oxford English Dictionary, containing an impressive 10,000 entries and 18,000 definitions of terms and slang.

If you want to know why an unassisted triple play is newsworthy, or what the difference is between a brushback pitch, a knockdown pitch, and a beanball, Dickson will tell you. There are also definitions for colorful terms like fishing trip (“a swing at a pitch outside the strike zone”) and raftman (“a slow outfielder who appears to be poling a raft rather than running”)?  Besides part of speech, definitions, and other standard dictionary furniture, Dickson often provides historical background, with dated references to earliest found use.  Some entries, like the one for southpaw, are extended essays on the term’s origins and its uses beyond baseball. 

Fascinating reading for dictionary lovers as well as baseball fans.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 24th, 2009 at 8:57 am and is filed under In the News, Reference Classics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.