Chalk

Most phones do not ring anymore either, and I hear people say their phone rang. Phones chirp, blare music and make all kinds of sounds, but almost never do they ring.

 

Walk-off is the same thing. Players had been using it for years, I think, before it became common jargon. Chalk's akin to using, "I'll take UCLA and the points."

 

Once, in Vinland, full of mead and ambition, I told Odin where to get off.
Now, I'm a tree in Newfoundland.
Go figure.

 

Let me remind some of you punks that an old fart does not smell as bad as a fresh one.

 

At one paper I worked for, the handicapper was a self-described "chalk-eater"

 

i never heard walk-off before in my life until about four years ago when ESPN popularized it. no one i played with used it (not that i played pro ball, obviously).

 

When was the last time you saw "flashbulbs" in the stands?
I see that in copy for every big event.

 

Aren't modern flashes "bulbs" inside the camera, too? [/ignorant about camera technology]

 

The word "chalk" is not that abstract.
It is a term that has been used in Sports pages for more than a half century. It's almost always associated with horse racing. So, those not growing up around a track, it is understandable that the term may be foreign.
Red Smith used the term frequently (and so did Jim Murray). The earliest I could find was a 1953 reference to Native Dancer (a 7-10 betting favorite) losing the Kentucky Derby by a nose. 'Dancer then went on crush the fields in both the Preakness and Belmont.

 

Alrighty, then. Thanks for the etymology class. It has a neat meaning, but I still can't stand that the media have co-opted it in the last week and all of a sudden we're back in a smokey pool hall in 1920.

 

Guess you guys have never seen a Kentucky Derby? Preakness or Belmont? Breeders' Cup?
It's part of the lexicon.

 

Seen those, but am a strictly casual observer of horse racing. And a non-observer of gambling on horse racing.

But using chalk for the NCAA tournament seems akin to saying that Bryce Drew hit a walkoff home run at the buzzer for Valpo.