would not assume terms such as, “bunt,” “strike,” “grand-slam,” or“choke-up” to be violent, because of the bloodless nature of the game. Theunderlying meaning of these terms: “drop-kick,” “bunt,” and “choke-up,” deals withcontact of a ball or a bat; not the opponent. Basketball also shares this idea with“bank-shot” and “slam-dunk,” where it is just the ball, the rim, and the “shooter”(the player). In Wednesday night’s NBA game, NBA players, Kevin Garnett andRasheed Wallace, were exchanging forearm shoves and commentator Stewart Scottreported that they were “showing much love.” In this case, the commentator’s quotemeant the opposite of what the players action really were. To a person who knowsnothing about sports, the language may sound obscure, when judged by the violenceof the game.Although violent sports do not always result in violent terminology, the mostphysical sport enhances players to commit rough plays and exchange violentlanguage. Football and basketball are sports that concentrate on man opposinganother man, whereas baseball focuses more on the player and the field. A goodexample to represent this relationship is when a player commits a foul. A “personalfoul” in football and basketball is physical violation against a player that mightcause injury to another, while on the contrary, the only injury caused by a “foul” inbaseball, will be a fan in the bleachers. Football and basketball manipulates thelanguage “man-to-man” and “one-on-one,” from the foundation of the sport. Baseball doesn’t usually consist a player facing a player, (except for the pitcher andbatter), therefore baseball doesn’t use “head-to-head” terms. On the web, “FirstBase Sports Football Glossary” defines the term “bump-...
