Baseball metaphors for sex

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The game of baseball is often used as a euphemistic metaphor for physical intimacy in the United States of America, especially to describe the level of sexual intimacy achieved in intimate encounters or relationships.^[1]

Contents 1 History 2 List of sexual metaphors 3 In sex education 4 Recent changes 5 References 6 External links

[edit] History

In the baseball metaphor, sexual activities are described as if they are moves in a game of baseball. In the United States of America from the end of World War II to present, men of all ages would sometimes use this competitive analogy to describe their successes in "making it" with girls.^[2][3]

[edit] List of sexual metaphors

Although details vary, the most broadly accepted description of what each base represented is as follows:

• First base is commonly understood to be French kissing, but can also mean any mouth-to-mouth kissing.^[4][5]
• Second base is groping or feeling up underneath the shirt, fondling or groping of male or female genitals. Also rubbing sensitive parts of the chest (Nipples).
• Third base usually refers to oral sex^{[citation needed]}
• Home plate (also fourth base), aka Scoring a Run, Hitting a Home Run, (or "scoring", "going all the way", "coming home", "rounding the bases" etc.) is sexual intercourse.^[4][5][6][7]

An alliterative mnemonic often used to remember the four bases is "French, Feel, Finger, Fuck"

Other baseball sexual metaphors:

• Striking out is often used to describe rejection and sexual frustration.^[8]
• Pitcher and catcher are used to describe the participants in male homosexual anal intercourse.^[8]
• Switch-hitter refers to bisexuals, while a "switch" may refer to someone who takes both a "top" or "bottom" role in domination play.^{[citation needed]}

A number of other baseball related euphemisms and variations on the original metaphor exist. David Letterman has chronicled many of these in his "Top Ten Baseball Euphemisms for Sex," a recurring theme on his Top Ten Lists.^[9]

• A Strikeout occurs when there is no success at all. Striking out looking means no success because one did not try to "get on base" and striking out swinging means the partner refused any attempts.
• An Ejection occurs when there is no success as a result of becoming "just friends".
• A Two Run Homer is sexual intercourse two times in one night.
• A Three Run Homer is sexual intercourse three times in one night.
• A Grand slam is sexual intercourse four times in one night (sometimes sexual intercourse after knowing the other person for only one day) or anal sex.
• An inside the park home run is a non-intercourse orgasm resulting from dry humping (clothed genital to genital stimulation).
• A Walk is a goodnight kiss, celebratory kiss, or any other kind of non-romantic kiss.
• Batting practice refers to masturbation.
• A Balk is premature ejaculation.
• An Error is when a person has blackout sex they regret.
• Batting for the other team/Switch hitting—Typically means the individual is homosexual or bisexual, but could also mean they are heterosexual, if the term is used by a homosexual person.
• Scoring is sexual intercourse.
• The pitcher is the active or top partner in (especially homosexual) anal sex or sexual intercourse.

• The catcher is the passive receiver or bottom partner in (especially homosexual) anal sex or sexual intercourse.
• A ground rule double is accidentally fondling, especially breasts when falling on a girl.
• Stealing a base means advancing to the next "base" prior to consent.
• Stealing home means rape, date rape in particular.
• Picked off a base means being refused any more "bases" because of perceived lack of skill or ability.
• Thrown out at the plate occurs when intercourse is refused at the last moment as a result of, for example: physical appearance in the nude, not having a condom, or inability to obtain an erection.
• A Rain delay is postponing of a date/romantic encounter, typically as a result of menstruation, but also from unforseeable circumstances (mood, headache, parents, etc.).
• Being called up from the Minors is having a sexual encounter while not of legal age.
• A slumpbuster is having a sexual encounter with someone who you are not attracted to, for the sole purpose of getting back in the game.
• Bunting for a hit is taking what the defense will give you with little to no effort in a desperate attempt to get on base (or hooking up with an ugly person), can be used to get out of a slump.
• A Walk off is a happy ending.
• A Walk off Grand Slam—a satisyfing one-time sexual encounter, as in a one-night stand.
• Breaking up two is when a jealous rival prevents you from turning a double play.
• A Corked bat is when a man takes performance enhancing drugs.
• A double switch is an attempt by a man to change the point of penetration, without warning the female.
• A sacrifice fly is when a person performs oral sex on a second person, allowing the second person to score (have an orgasm), while the first person often experiences discomfort (getting out). Especially true when the second person doesn't reciprocate as promised.
• The Infield Fly Rule is when there is an unequal ratio of males to females at a party, and a member of the gender with more members leaves to create an equal ratio.
• Pine tar is lubricant.
• Fan interference is cockblocking.
• Charging the mound is when two guys fight over a desired female who was flirting with both men.
• A hidden ball trick is when a man tucks his penis behind his legs, also known as man-gina, fruit salad, or "The Goat".
• Taking one for the team is involving oneself in a sexual act for the benefit of one's friends or associates. (Sleeping with a less attractive woman in order for one's friends to sleep with other women).
• A shortstop is between second base and third, usually referring to an act of manual stimulation leading to orgasm, as in fingering a girl or beating off a guy.
• Pulling a Bill Buckner is when a drunken maiden, due to her intoxicated state, has sex and is ostracized by her virgin friends. Predominantly used on the East Coast of the United States.
• An RBI is when a man reaches second or third base, but does not achieve orgasm and proceeds to masturbate to orgasm when returning home.
• A hit by pitch is when ejaculation lands on receiving partner (often occurring when practicing the "pull-out" technique).
• A foul ball is an inability to orgasm despite erection or when one partner orgasms and the other does not. Similarly, foul ground is defined as the unattractiveness of the partner causing the failed orgasm.
• A good glove man up the middle is a male partner skilled in Cunnilingus. (used in the movie Bull Durham).
• An Earned Run Average is how promiscuous a woman or man is, with a higher average meaning she or he allows more 'scoring'.
• A Backdoor Slider is a term used to describe unexpected anal sex
• A hit and run is a one-night stand where one partner sneaks out on the other after the other has fallen asleep.
• Major League Debut is when the male/female breaks in a virgin of the opposite sex.
• Cut-Off Man is the man who pulls off the second half of the switch-a-rue.
• Lefty Specialist refers to a mastribation in which the left hand is favored over the right.
• A Triple Play is when all three holes of a female are filled during sex.
• A Run-Down is when you are chased by a clingy male/female.

[edit] In sex education

Educators have found the baseball metaphor an effective instructional tool when providing sex education to middle school students.^[8] Levin and Bell, in their book A Chicken's Guide to Talking Turkey With Your Kids About Sex, make use of it to aid parents in the discussion of puberty with their children, dividing the topics into "first base" ("Changes from the neck up"), "second base" ("Changes from the neck to the waist"), "third base" ("Changes from the waist down"), and "home plate" ("The Big 'It'").^[10] The bases may be different for different people, and genders.

[edit] Recent changes

This sequence of "running the bases" is often regarded as script, or pattern, for young people who are experimenting with sexual relationships. The script has changed slightly since the 1960s. Kohl and Francoeur note that with the growing emphasis in the 1990s on safe sex and efforts by the feminist movement to expand sex beyond phallo-vaginal intercourse, the "home run" has taken on the additional dimension of oral-genital sexual intercourse. Richters and Rissel conversely point out that "third base" has since become seen, by some people, to comprise oral sex as part of the accepted pattern of activities, as a pre-cursor to "full" (i.e. phallo-vaginal) sex.^[11][12]

Mullaney reports the idea that the introduction of oral sex is in fact a "new teen model", that is replacing the "traditional base system", in part as an "unintended offspring of 'abstinence-only' education". In this new model, sex acts, including many that were not included as part of the traditional "base" system, are classified in a wholly different way. The acts that count as "sex" are distinguished from those that do not count as "sex" according to whether it is possible to become pregnant from them. Thus oral sex, anal sex, and "a variety of other acts" are reclassified in the new model as "not a big deal" and "part of the realm of abstinence". Mullaney states that "obviously, not all teens subscribe to this revised model of classification".^[13]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• David Dale (2004-02-10). "Strike me lucky, it just isn't cricket". The Sun-Herald. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/02/09/1076175089032.html?from=storyrhs. 
• Nikki Sen. "Moving Beyond First Base". Lifestyle. Indiainfo. http://lifestyle.indiainfo.com/relationships/kamasutra/moving_beyond_first_base.html.