Baseball metaphors for sex

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

Contents 1 History 2 Recent Changes 3 Appearances 4 References 5 Further reading 6 See also

[edit] History

The baseball metaphor is one of several images of combat and war that, according to Romaine, "pervade male understandings of sexuality". In the baseball metaphor, sexual activities are described as if they are moves in a game of baseball. In the United States from the end of World War II through to at least the 1960s, adolescent boys would use this competitive analogy to describe, usually to boast about, their successes in "making out" with girls.^[2][3]

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.^[4][5]
• Second base usually refers to fondling or groping, especially of the breasts (sometimes summarized as "hands in the blouse"), and possibly stimulation of the genitals from outside of the clothing.^[4][5]
• Third base used to mean heavy petting on exposed genitals or breasts.^[5] But recently some observers have noted that young people regard oral stimulation of one person's genitals by his or her partner as just another form of heavy petting. Hence, oral sex is now widely regarded as the new third base.^[4]
• Home run (or "Hitting it out of the park", "scoring", "going all the way" etc.) is orgasm or sexual intercourse.^[4][5]

[edit] Recent Changes

This sequence of "running the bases" is often regarded as a 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 attempts by feminists to move males away from an obsession with phallo-vaginal intercourse, the "home run" has taken on the additional dimension of oral-genital sexual intercourse. Richters and Rissel similarly 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.^[6][7]

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" (i.e. what would in the traditional system have constituted a "home run") are distinguished from those that do not count as "sex" according to whether it is possible to become pregnant, or lose one's virginity, 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".^[8]

Other parts of the baseball metaphor include "striking out" (sexual frustration), "pitcher" (for the penetrating partner) and "catcher" (for the receiving partner) in male homosexual intercourse, and more obscure allusions such as a "catcher's mitt" for a contraceptive sponge.^[9]

Educators have found the baseball metaphor an effective instructional tool when providing sex education to middle school students.^[9] 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]

[edit] Appearances

• Comedian Joey Forman, in his 1960s album parodying Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, also parodied Grantland Rice by making the following comment: "In the game of love, my son, it matters not whether you win or lose... but did you score?"^{[citation needed]}
• Woody Allen, in his 1972 feature film Play It Again, Sam, has just awakened in bed with Diane Keaton, and the following dialogue ensues:^{[citation needed]}

  She: What were you thinking about while we were doing it?

  He: Willie Mays.

  She: Do you always think of baseball players when you're making love?

  He: It keeps me going.

  She: I wondered why you kept yelling, "Slide!"

• This was a followup to an early standup bit in which Woody talked about the later stages of a date, who turned out to be his second wife:^{[citation needed]}

  "That was two o'clock in the morning, and I get my date back to her apartment, and the two of us are alone, and we're going pretty good. I have to explain this very delicately, 'cause it's really tentative. As I... as I am an inordinately...passionate...man. Volatile. Sensual. In general a stud. When making love...when making love...in an effort...to prolong...the moment of ecstasy...I think of baseball players. All right, now you know. The two of us are making love violently, she's digging it, I figure I better start thinking of ballplayers quickly. So I figure it's one out, the ninth, the Giants are up. Mays lines a single to right, he takes second on a wild pitch. Now she is digging her nails into my neck. I decided to pinch-hit for McCovey. Alou pops out. Haller singles, Mays holds third. Now I got a first-and-third situation. Two out, the Giants are behind one run. I don't know whether to squeeze or steal. She's been in the shower for ten minutes, already. This is too...I can't tell you anymore, this is too personal. The Giants won."

• Major leaguer Mark Grace appeared on The Jim Rome Show and explained to Jim Rome's radio audience the importance of using a slumpbuster when a hitter is on a cold streak.^{[citation needed]}
• The metaphor was highlighted again by Meat Loaf's song "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" on the 1977 album Bat out of Hell.^[11]
• The song "I Heard You Got Action" by Canadian rock group Pony Up! is centered around numerous sexual allusions to baseball terms.^{[citation needed]}
• In the 1999 movie, American Pie, third base was described as feeling like a warm apple pie, referring to manual stimulation of the female genitals (as indicated by the speakers hand gesture).^{[citation needed]}
• In an episode of "Drawn Together", Spanky Ham claims to have let Captain Hero get to a fictitious "seventh base" with him.
• In an episode of Clone High, Cleopatra agrees to let Abe go to the "first and a half base", which Abe describes as "under the shirt, over the bra."
• In 13 going on 30 the girl says,"I hope he goes for 2nd Base."

[edit] References

1. ^ Steven L. Hellermann and Andrei S. Markovits (2001). Offside: soccer and American exceptionalism. Princeton University Press, 66. ISBN 069107447X. 
2. ^ Suzanne Romaine (1999). Communicating Gender. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 210. ISBN 0805829261. 
3. ^ Marty Jezer (1982). The Dark Ages, Life in the United States, 1945–1960. South End Press, 248. ISBN 0896081273. 
4. ^ ^{a b c d} Ava L. Siegler (1997). The Essential Guide to the New Adolescence: How to Raise an Emotionally Healthy Teenager. Dutton, 27. ISBN 0525939709. 
5. ^ ^{a b c d} teenwire.com Editors (2001-01-06). Ask the Experts: What do people mean by going to first base, second base, third base, and hitting a homerun?. teenwire.com.
6. ^ Juliet Richters and Chris Rissel (2005). Doing it Down Under: The Sexual Lives of Australians. Allen & Unwin, 32. ISBN 1741143268. 
7. ^ James V. Kohl and Robert T. Francoeur (2002). The Scent of Eros: Mysteries of Odor in Human Sexuality. iUniverse, 153–154. ISBN 059523383X. 
8. ^ Jamie L. Mullaney (2005). Everyone Is NOT Doing It: Abstinence and Personal Identity. University of Chicago, 153–154. ISBN 0226547566. 
9. ^ ^{a b} Alvin L. Hall and Thomas L. Altherr (2002). "Eros at the Bat: American Baseball and Sexuality in Historical Context", The Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture 1998. McFarland & Company, 157–182. ISBN 0786409541. 
10. ^ Kevin Leman and Kathy Flores Bell (2004). A Chicken's Guide to Talking Turkey With Your Kids About Sex: A Healthy Look at Sexuality for. Zondervan. ISBN 031025096X. 
11. ^ James F. Harris (1993). Philosophy at 33 1/3 Rpm: Themes of Classic Rock Music. Open Court Publishing, 116–118. ISBN 0812692411. 

[edit] Further reading

• David Dale. "Strike me lucky, it just isn't cricket", The Sun-Herald, 2004-02-10.
• Nikki Sen. Moving Beyond First Base. Lifestyle. Indiainfo.

[edit] See also

• Andreas Capellanus