Shoot baby bow your neck out there!   Hon now!  Hum baby!

I awoke this morning speaking infield chatter to my wife and daughters.  They are used to these bouts of regression and tolerate me knowing it wil pass in six to fortyeight hours.  Until my return to normalcy they are subjected to hand clapping, motivational encouragement in their daily routine of keep your head up and glove down.  Lay off the high stuff.  Swing from your hips and keep the trademark up.  Find the sweet spot baby.  I'm not sure they understand the meanings of these ramblings, hell who does, but they respond to them and enjoy their chores as I rant on.  The best moment of my life was when I was headed out the door and my five year old daughter swatted me on the butt and said "go hell bent for leather out there today."  The tears welled up and my heart almost burst with pride.

I'm not sure of the origins of baseball chatter or if it is still spoken on big league or little league fields.  I do know that it was passed along to me by several coaches who insisted it would keep you loose and your head in the game.  My high school coach was a master linguist and started every sentence with shoot baby.  Shoot baby back in fifty four when I first broke in with the Dodgers....  This phrase was music  to my ears because a thirty minute story always followed about how he roomed with the Duke or caught hell from Leo.  I hung on every word.  I run into former teammates and the first words out of our mouths are shoot baby how's it goin'?

Please pass along your favorite chatter phrases if you have any.  Remember don't sack your bats til the game is over and don't spit your seeds on the carpet.  This is not a dugout!