Sports Talk

How do I 'get the ball rolling'? What does it mean to 'go to bat for' someone? When someone wants me to 'touch base', what should I do?

Sports expressions can be very confusing to foreigners doing business with Americans because they are used so frequently as an informal way to communicate in the workplace.

Here are some other sports expressions used in business. Can you guess their meaning?

Our team had a morning huddle to discuss developments in our project.

Because our company just got bought out, we must implement a new operational system. It’s a whole new ball game for us.

I didn't give him specifics -- just the ballpark figures.

Now for the explanations:

To get the ball rolling means to initiate or take the first step to start some action. If you and your team have been discussing a new project, and now you are ready to start it, you will do so by taking some action. For example, you might assign duties to each member as a way of starting the work. When someone says "Let's get the ball rolling" he or she may have a sense of urgency and may want to begin as soon as possible. If the project has had a slow start, it may be time to speed up. This idiom can be applied to soccer, where a player takes the ball and starts moving it down the field.

To go to bat for someone means to positively support someone's ideas. If you choose to go to bat for a friend or a colleague, your intention is to help him or her. You might speak to another person and defend your colleague's point of view, for example. This idiom comes from baseball and in baseball it means to get ready to hit the ball with the bat.

To touch base means to make contact. If , at the end of a meeting today someone says, "Let's touch bases next week" it means you should contact each other by email or phone at some point in time next week. It is a very informal phrase that doesn't indicate a specific time to talk again. It means you will have a brief discussion about today's work next week. This phrase comes also comes from baseball. In baseball, a base is the white square that the runner must touch before scoring. There are four of them.

A huddle is an short, informal meeting that is impromptu or not planned. It is a very informal process where a few people get together spontaneously to discuss and decide on something. A huddle in football is where all of the players on the field stand in a circle and lean over so that no one else can hear them discussing their next strategy.

A whole new ball game indicates a new situation that will provide new challenges and possibly a new system of doing things. This new situation may have different rules, factors to consider, or other changed variables. In baseball, a whole new ball game is a fresh new game, and it's the opportunity to start over and play better.

Ballpark figures are general financial numbers. Business people talk about numbers in general to indicate profit, expense, cost, and other business results. When someone gives ballpark figures, he or she doesn't know or doesn't want to reveal the exact numbers. Ballpark figures refer to the scores and averages of baseball games and players.

If you want to read a dialogue and learn more sports idioms, go to the English as a Second Language page on About.com. Here is the link: http://esl.about.com/library/weekly/aa111697.htm.

One thing to remember though, when using sports idioms, is that is it always best to clarify the idiom. If you say, "Let's touch base" you can also say "Let's make contact" or "Let's get in touch" afterward to simplify your words a little.