Several unique sports terms and a few of their origins

As I am wont to do, I was perusing the internet and came across some very interesting sports terms. I had heard of some of them while others had never reached my ears. The explanation of where these terms originated may lack some validity. To that end I would cite the old joke… it was on the internet so it must be true!Here they are. I'm curious as to how many were already on your radar. If you have any disagreements let me know.DIME. This is an easy one. It comes from the sport of basketball and it refers to an assist. Back in my day an assist was called an assist. So in my mind this is a relatively new term. The suggested origin might refute that claim.Back in the days of the pay phone (yes that is my day) one needed money to place a call. In fact you needed to deposit 10 cents just to get the operator. If a person wanted to make a call and had no money he might ask a friend for help. Give the man a dime and he can place a call.Thus the dime was an "assist" to make a phone call.HAIL MARY. Another term that you have to know and it is most often used in football when a quarterback heaves the ball toward the end zone as time is running out hoping for a minor miracle.Supposedly the term is credited to Roger Staubach of the Dallas Cowboys. In 1975 he hit on one of those miracle throws and he decided to have some fun with reporters the next day.When one asked him how it felt to watch the receiver haul in the desperation throw he said he didn't know. "I was knocked down on the play so I just closed my eyes and said a Hail Mary. The rest, as they say, is history.SOUTHPAW. Another familiar term that is used primarily in baseball, it refers to a left handed player. It was first used for pitchers and comes from the design of baseball fields.So that the batter does not have to deal with the afternoon or early evening sun in his eyes, diamonds are built to face the east. Follow that to its logical conclusion, a left handed pitcher's throwing arm is to the south. Thus…NUTMEG. If this is one you don't know, well neither did I. It comes from the sport of soccer and I will be the first to admit that I don't follow the sport closely. The term refers to a player who is in possession of the ball, kicks it between his opponents legs and goes around to get control of the ball and continue the play.The opponent is considered to have been nutmegged. The origin supposedly comes from American merchants in the late 1800's who sold nutmegs to English buyers. The bags would include wood chips to try to fool the buyer into thinking he got more nutmeg than he actually did. Thus the buyer was fooled and left a little embarrassed, as was the soccer player.BONK. While the term caught me off guard, its meaning did not. This is from the sport of running and it refers to a distance runner hitting the proverbial wall. His or her energy is completely sapped and finishing the race is not guaranteed. The bonked runner will certainly be passed by several others.When I ran cross country in high school (seriously I did) my teammates voted me most likely to bonk. To me that was a bad rap. In many races I would start very slowly to avoid bonking. Of course this meant that many runners were finished by the time I showed up with a glorious 50-yard (maybe) sprint. Bonked or otherwise I usually ended up in the back of the field.DEUCE. I'm not sure who invented scoring for tennis, but the guy must have had a mean streak. When a match begins the players are at zero-zero, nothing-nothing, or bupkis-bupkis (I do watch commercials) – correct? Not in tennis. The players start love-love.When a player wins that first volley they are given the score of 15. So the game score is 15-love. If the other player wins the next volley the score becomes 15-15. Next volley winner will get the score of 30. From 30 you go to 40. Assuming the players alternate volley wins the score would be 15-15, 30-30 and then 40-40 or so one would think. But you never hear 40-40. No, it's now deuce.The explanation for the term deuce makes perfect sense. A player now has to win two consecutive points to win. That's logical even if the scoring numbers are not.DORMIE. Most golfers are aware of this term. It is used in match play. If you are two holes ahead with two to play – you have your opponent dormie. The word comes from a French/Latin word meaning to go to sleep. Now don't take this definition literally. You can relax (sleeping would be a bad idea) because you cannot lose.Of course you may not win either. If your opponent wins the last two holes you would end up tying. I guess you can relax when you have your opponent dormie as you are guaranteed to at least get a point. Match his score on one of the last two holes and you will be a winner.Alas, it is better to have someone dormie than to be dormied!FARTLEK. Hey we are back to running. This type of training method comes from Sweden and means speed play. One trains by running a series of sprints followed by jogging. Do this alternately for a period of time and you are using fartlek training. I'm guessing that you would like to know if I used this type of training in my day. Well, the answer would be no. Assuming this would make me a better runner seems beside the point.Remember, I was a bonker!