Part of baseball is that received wisdom is built up from decades of experience and observation. Often this wisdom is transferred by sayings and aphorism. This feature contributes to baseball's art and lore, but frequently the reasons for the sayings are lost. "No pepper," it will say behind home plate, yet the reference is lost on most. Perhaps my favorite example of this wisdom-by-metaphor (not quite language-by-metaphor) describes a top-heavy pitching rota...