Talk:Catbird seat

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It is unlikely that the "catbird seat" derived from an Australian bowerbird or catbird (family Ptilonorhynchidae). It is much more likely that the term is in reference to the American grey catbird (Dumetella carolinensis). This is probably the bird that Red Barber, who grew up in Mississippi, was talking about. The winter range of the Grey Catbird extends from the Gulf States to Panama. [1]

There is a contradiction between two different articles.

In this article, you comment that Red Barber's daughter attributed his use of the phrase "sitting in the Catbird seat" to James Thurber's short story:

"According to Barber's daughter, however, it was only after Barber read Thurber's story that he started using the phrase "in the catbird seat" himself."

Another Wikiepdia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseball_slang) titled "English language idioms derived from baseball" says that Barber, interviewed in the Saturday Review in 1958, said that he first heard this term during a game of penny-ante poker while he was in Cincinnati, presumably sometime in the 1930s, and borrowed it for his radio broadcasts.

There is no publication cited regarding the daughter's comment.

  • Indeed; an Australian connect is unlikely in the extreme. I think it may mean nothing more than "sitting on a nest with three eggs under you." 149.8.226.148 17:42, 14 November 2006 (UTC)
  • Due to the unlikeliness of the Australian connection, the Australian catbird should not really figure in this page, which is about the expression and not the bird. Richard E 08:27, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Contents

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Shouldn't this be a disambiguation page instead? It details the music group, the bird AND the phrase.

Licon 13:26, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] reads like advertizing

Most of this page is just advertizing for an obscure band. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Oscar Goldman (talk • contribs) 03:26, 5 March 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Vandalism

I recently had to remove vandalism from this page. It seems to be a page that attracts trouble. I hope that the editors can watch this page and do something about it.

[edit] Translate from American please?"

...like a batter with three balls and no strikes on him.

Please can someone explain what this means, to an audience ignorant of baseball? We don't all live in the good ole U.S. of A, you know.

--84.9.73.117 18:42, 7 July 2007 (UTC)

In baseball, four balls allows the batter to proceed or "walk" to first base. A "ball" is a pitch not over homeplate, or above the batters shoulders or below the knees. A pitch over the plate and between the shoulders and knees is a "strike" (3 strikes and your out!). Thus, a 3-ball, no strike count on a batter is very advantageous. The batter can wait for a juicy pitch to hit knowing that he has two strikes to give before even having to consider swinging the bat.