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Wernfried Haas <amne@g.o> posted |
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20060826101703.GA32678@×××××××××.rechner, excerpted below, on Sat, 26 Aug |
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2006 12:17:03 +0200: |
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|
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>> Quit assuming I mean anything, you're batting zero for two right now. |
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> |
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> What's the problem? I wasn't sure how you meant it, so i assumed you |
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> meant it that way. As for batting zero for two, i never heard that |
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> phrase before and have nfc what it means, but somehow that whole |
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> statement doesn't seem very friendly to me. |
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|
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It's an allusion to baseball. I'm /not/ a sports fan, but I do live in |
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the US, where baseball among others is popular sport and this phrase has |
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entered the popular culture from there. |
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|
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The term "batting average" refers to a statistic in baseball, commonly |
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given as a three or four digit decimal fraction of one (Ty Cobb hit .3664 |
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lifetime average, the record according to Wikipedia, with no pro player |
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hitting a seasonal .400 since 1941, see the reference below), that is the |
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ratio of actual hits to "at bats". "Batting zero" refers to the zero |
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(.000) baseline one gets if they have no hits. |
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|
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batting_(baseball)#Success_in_batting |
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|
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"Batting X for Y" then refers to the number of hits (X) for a given number |
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of at-bats (Y) in a specific game or season. |
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|
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Within the US culture, then, "batting zero for X", where X is an |
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increasingly large number, is a reference to a poor record of successes |
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against tries. |
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|
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Google says there's 11,000 indexed English pages referencing "batting |
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zero": |
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|
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http://www.google.com/search?lr=lang_en&q=%22batting+zero%22 |
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|
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... altho only 141 referencing "batting zero for": |
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|
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http://www.google.com/search?lr=lang_en&q=%22batting+zero+for%22 |
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|
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Taking a look at those will give you an idea of the usage, but here are a |
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three samples from the first page of returns on that 141: |
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|
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* By my count, the Bush administration is batting zero-for-twenty. |
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|
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* There was one stretch where I was batting zero for five on investment |
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banking jobs, |
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|
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* Prior to this trip, United through Chicago was batting zero-for-ten (.000 |
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for baseball fans) with regard to connecting me through O'Hare [airport] |
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|
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That's the cultural context, then. It's simply saying you've tried twice |
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and failed twice. Yes, it's negative, unfortunately so given spyderous' |
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musings in the OP about useless flaming, but not unacceptably so in the |
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generic, particularly as zero for two isn't /so/ bad, compared to the |
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references above (0:3, 0:5, 0:20), or even compared to the original |
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baseball allusion, where 1/3 or .333 isn't all that shabby and you've yet |
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to take your third try. |
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|
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You may however also wish to reference "strike out". A batter gets three |
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tries. The third strike without a hit and he's "out". (The following |
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reference redirects to "strike zone", but that covers it.) |
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|
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strike_(baseball) |
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|
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Again, I'm not a sports fan, but sports are part of the "cultural |
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literacy" in much of the world, and baseball is one such sport here in the |
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US, so it's something we know even if we /aren't/ particularly interested |
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in it. |
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|
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-- |
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Duncan - List replies preferred. No HTML msgs. |
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"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master -- |
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and if you use the program, he is your master." Richard Stallman |
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|
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-- |
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