Kerry Wood Minds His 'Peas' and Q's

If we've picking up on any themes in the almost three months of publishing Batter Chatter, it's that baseball lingo owes a gigantic debt of gratitude to the food world. There is the snow cone catch, the can of corn, the rib-eye steak, and so on. By the way, did someone call Jose Reyes a hot dog?

Yankees announcer Michael Kay added another one to the baseball-foodie portfolio over the weekend. New acquisition Kerry Wood--he of the "nuclear" stuff--had just allowed the past three batters to hit noisy, fearsome shots all over the Stadium. (Though thankfully for Wood, none landed in the short porch.)

Kay said Wood had just had three "peas" hit against him.

Yes, a pea. I'd heard it a few times before; I think it comes from the fact that a particularly hard hit ball, to the human eye, is but a tiny orb flying through the stratosphere.

Back when Tim McCarver used to call the Mets games, he'd use the term "seed" in the same way, as in, Todd Hundley just hit a seed to right-center for a double. The way McCarver said it, it had at least two syllables: seee-eeed.

Oddly, Wikipedia's "Glossary of Baseball" defines "pea" as a fast pitch: A pitched ball thrown at high speed. "Clem can really fling that pea."

On a personal note, we saw a few peas and seeds hit last night at "The Dutch," as the Hudson Valley Renegades stadium is known, as the hometown 'Gades took on the Jammers of Jamestown. Fun for the whole family, and the announcer even made fun of me in front of a crowd of 5,000 or so as I tried to distribute the Family Four Pack of hot dogs and sodas to the clan and missed the opportunity to keep a bouncing beach ball aloft in our section.

To be honest, the beach ball looked like a pea out of the corner of my eye.

[image: yankees.com]

It Is Unclear if Strasburg is 'Nuclear'

A piece on ESPN.com today compares the hype surrounding Stephen Strasburg's nascent career to other media circus events in baseball history, such as the Sosa-McGwire home run derby of 1998 and Doc Gooden's unforgettable rookie campaign in 1984.

Fireballer Kerry Wood is also included on the list, after he struck out 20--while walking none and allowing one hit--in his fifth career start back in 1998. Here at Batter Chatter (not to be confused with '80s snack food Better Cheddar), we like to detail how various baseball terms pop up and catch on.

Jerry Crasnick's ESPN story suggests that the term "electric", as in a pitcher having an electric fastball, was hatched around the same time Kerry Wood's arm was trouble-free and he was mowing down every hitter in his path.

"There's a new term being used in baseball these days: electric," veteran scout Gordon Lakey said that season. "Like, 'This guy has an electric fastball' or 'This guy has an electric curveball.' Well, this guy ain't electric. He's nuclear."

Interesting.

It doesn't seem as though "nuclear" ever caught on. Maybe it's because the word calls to mind bombs and the utter annhilation of nations, or because it's hard to say--hey, no lighter luminary than our 43rd president had lots of difficulty saying "nuclear."

Unfortunately, Kerry Wood, with a Pavano-esque knack for injuries both mundane and bizarre--the guy once was injured climbing out of a hot tub--didn't stay "nuclear" for long. Sadly, Wood--who turns 33 today, as luck would have it--is hardly even "electric" anymore.

[image: wikipedia.org]