Word: ephus
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Many a grower, who feared that a bad crash in cotton might still be ahead, began mumbling ephus-iphus-ophus, a meaningless phrase that Southern crapshooters use while making a critical roll. Many a worried millowner and converter, hedging to protect heavy inventories of high-priced cotton, helped cotton down by feverishly selling futures...
...four years, National League batsmen had been trying to fathom Rip Sewell's pet pitch. Rip called it an ephus ball after an old crap-shooting phrase, ephusiphus-ophus; sportswriters called it a blooper. Whatever its name, it was lobbed up to the plate, fat and inviting, with lots of backspin-and, if hit, usually popped up high in the air to the second-baseman...
...into it, put his powerful wrists into the swing at the right moment, just like a golfer. The ball sailed 380 leet into the right field bull pen for a home run, his second of the afternoon. It was the first time anybody had ever smacked Rip's ephus ball for a homer...
After watching Williams hit Rip Sewell's ephus ball last week, Manager Steve O'Neill of the Detroit Tigers said flatly: "I call him the best hitter the game has seen. That means he's superior to Ty Cobb." At week's end, the new Ted Williams looked it, hitting three homers and bringing in eight runs in one game against the Cleveland Indians...