Our own Josh Chetwynd (“Baseball in Europe“; Mister-Baseball’s European Top 50) has written a new book: “Field Guide to Sports Metaphors”.
A gift-worthy playbook of common and unexpected words and idioms rooted in sports and games.
There are many metaphors we can quickly identify from the realm of sports—for example, ballpark figure (baseball), being down for the count (boxing) and calling an audible (football) all come up in general conversation. But the English language is also peppered with not-so-obvious instances of sport-influenced words, from stymie (golf) to shoo-in (horse racing).
The Field Guide to Sports Metaphors delves into the histories of more than 300 terms and phrases connected to this world. Filled with fun, pithy, yet deeply researched, entries on each idiom, this quirky handbook also includes sidebars on unexpected sporty phrases (did you know “my bad” comes from one-time NBA player Manute Bol?), quotes showing how figures from President Barack Obama to Nick Cannon use them, and some myth-busting on phrases that appear to come from the sports realm but do not. Fans for the book already include author Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods), who endorsed it, calling it, “Fascinating, informative and hugely entertaining. This is a book I will return to again and again.”
New York Times best-selling author Josh Chetwynd is a former professional baseball player and an award-winning journalist who has worked as a staff reporter for or contributed to such publications as USA Today, U.S. News & World Report, Wall Street Journal, Times of London, Harvard Negotiation Law Review, and BBC Radio. He is the author of six books, including The Secret History of Balls, which was named a Best Book of 2011 by NPR.
The Field Guide to Sports Metaphors | By Josh Chetwynd $14.99 ($19.99 Can) hardcover | 224 Pages | 5 x 7 inches | ISBN 978-1-60774-811-3 | On sale May 3, 2016