Brett Gardner Fills 'Hole' For Bombers

If we're on the cusp of Memorial Day, it must mean the NHL is close to awarding that gloriously dinged up chalice known as the Stanley Cup.

So it is with hockey on the brain that we mention the five-hole.

The five-hole refers to the space between the goalkeeper's legs. In other words, he is responsible for blocking the puck from entering five holes: above and below his stick, above and below his glove, and between his legs. That's the five-hole.

The term occasionally creeps into the baseball world too.

Writes the New York Post about last weekend's Subway Series:

You let a ground ball from Brett Gardner somehow go five-hole on you, without getting a glove, calf or shoe on it. "The moment I threw it, hard sinker, I'm thinking, 'Be ready, he may hit it right back at you,' and I still can't get a hand on it. Frustrating," Pelfrey said.

Protect that five-hole, Billy B!

A more common--and totally different--use of five-hole in baseball refers to the spot in the batting order, as in, the Mets need some power in the five-hole, since Jason Bay drives the ball with all the power of Erkel. You can pretty much affix "hole" to any spot in the batting order, outside of leadoff. There's no hole in hitting first.

And what's just a wee bit better--or .5 better, if you're scoring at home--than the five-hole?

The 5.5 hole, of course, as the space between the third baseman (#5, in scoring numerology) and the shortstop (#6) is known.

Tony Gwynn was known as a master of hitting it through the 5.5 hole.

Had he played against Mike Pelfrey, Gwynn probably would've racked up a few hits through Pelf's long legs too.

Throw the 'Sink' At Them

Throwing a sink sounds like something world's strongest men hopefuls do on ESPN 9.

In fact, "sink" is the new nickname given to the sinkerball, as evidenced by the New York Post's scoopmeister Joel Sherman describing Mets hurler Mike Pelfrey's effective "sink" against the Phillies late last week.

Pelf "used his trademark sink to record 19 of his 21 outs either in the infield or with strikeouts," wrote Sherman. Also in Friday's Post, Sherman said Pelfrey's "sink was splendid."

You don't need to be Tim McCarver to figure out that a sink is a truncated term for sinker, which was itself a truncated term for sinkerball.

Sink follows the same pattern as its gravity-lovin' brethren, the "split." "Splitter" took over for "split-fingered fastball," which was way too long for anyone to say, and "split" seemed to relieve "splitter" when the pitch was all the rage in the mid-'90s.

Of course, jocular former Yankee/Blue Jay/Sawk starter Roger Clemens was the only Major Leaguer to refer to his own "split" as "Mr. Splitty."

Pelfrey strikes us as the self-effacing type; we'd be surprised if he ever called his signature pitch "Mr. Sinky."

[image: fishreports.com]