Wednesday, August 2, 2023

Fungus or Fungo?

My usual walking route goes by a school facility that has baseball fields.  The other day there was a family there, the dad pitching to his young son.  When I walked by today I saw this:


So was this a ball hit a surprising distance for a fledging ball player?  Nope.


Fungus.  Some kind of puff ball.  Well what about this?  Did the kid leave his glove behind?


Again, no.  Again, some kind of fungus, although almost the right size for a kid's glove.


Got me thinking.  The term in baseball for fly balls hit for fielding practice is "fungo" or "fungoe".  The origins of the phrase?  Unknown.  Maybe this is where it came from, going back the next day looking for the balls in tall grass and finding fungus instead!


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