Get To The Bottom Of: "Can Of Corn"

[John Bonnes]

[CENTER][I]Sponsored by Summit Brewery[/I][/CENTER]
[HR][/HR][attachment=7334:4874.attach]Like a lot of the folksy sayings of baseball, the phrase a "can of corn" was popularized by a baseball announcer. In this case, that was Red Barber, the legendary play-by-play radio announcer for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Barber broadcast in the land of "dem bums" but hailed from Mississippi, and thus brought a folksy feel to his broadcasts that endeared him to his northern listeners.

Barber would refer to a lazy fly ball that is easy to catch as a can of corn, but the phrase predated him. Barber didn't get his first broadcasting gig until January of 1930, when he filled in for a professor who was ill to read aloud a paper on bovine obstetrics. (I'm not making that up.) But the phrase has been found to be used in interviews with ballplayers as far back as the mid 1920s.

Like a lot of baseball slang, it has since been extended to refer to any particularly easy task. As such, it has been suggested that it originated because catching a fly ball was as easy as "opening a can of corn" but per [I]Dickson's Baseball Dictionary[/I], the more accepted origin is more interesting....

It used to be that grocers had very high shelves. If a customer wanted something from a high shelf, they would call a grocer boy over who had a very long stick with a hook on the end. The boy would reach up with the stick and tip the item backwards off the shelf, where he would catch it with his hands or in his apron like a net. Thus, catching a very high fly ball was like the grocer boy catching that "can of corn" off the shelf.
[HR][/HR][I]Every Thursday, Summit explores the origins of another odd baseball term, just in time for the weekend. Summit encourages you to get to the bottom your own life mysteries responsibly. [/I]

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