Thursday, August 19, 2010

What's Funnier Than 'Fundies'?


Quick, "Fundies" are a new line of kids' underwear branded with their favorite cartoon characters, a new brand of savory-sweet snack (a mix of Funyons and Fun Dip), or the name given to an eighth day of the week proposed by Congress, falling between Sunday and Monday and during which no work can be done, only fun.

None of the above. In fact, "fundies" is the shorthand SNY announcer Keith Hernandez has come up with for baseball's "fundamentals."

(On a personal note, I loved the word "fundamentals" when I was a kid. Ed Asner would do a public service announcement about books under the "Reading is Fundamental" [RIF] rubric, and I'd wonder how "fundamental" ended up with three separate words in it [fun, dumb, mental]--and quality words at that.)

Hernandez has tossed "fundies" around a few times this season, almost always after a player, typically a Met, has failed to execute an elementary baseball play, such as hitting a cutoff man or getting down a bunt.

Last night's utterance came when R. A. Dickey was looking to sacrifice bunt. The replay showed Dickey assuming textbook bunting position: knees bent, shoulders square, bat parallel to the ground.

"Proper fundies here!" said Hernandez.

(That Dickey's bunt had gone foul was but a technicality.)

"Fundies" coughs up a quarter million links on Google. It's primarily a pejorative abbreviation for religious fundamentalists, and also--I am not kidding about this--a brand of underpants built for two people.

One suspects that a fundie would never be caught wearing fundies.

Hernandez is a busy man (spokesmanning for Just For Men moustache dye and Gold Coin of Oyster Bay, the schleps to and from his base in the Hamptons), and has been tossing around abbreviations quite readily of late.

"Trips" is his new shorthand for a "triple," such as the one Jeff Francoeur juiced off the Minute Made Park wall Tuesday, and Jose Reyes' last night.

As your mother used to say, be sure to pack clean "fundies" when you go on "trips"!

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