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Baseball in French, Lesson 13: La Balle Tire-Bouchon Welcome to Baseball in French, Lesson 13. Previous lessons can be found here. Today's term is La balle tire-bouchon. In English, that translates to "the corkscrew ball". Or, as we better know it, "the screwball". There's a certain Montreal Expo who wasn't
exactly known as a screwball pitcher, but had a change-up that acted
like one, falling away from left-handed batters. Here he is on his 1994 O-Pee-Chee card.
 Martinez only spent 4 seasons with Montreal, from age 22 through 25, but that's when he started to show glimpses of the brilliant pitcher he'd become. In 1997, his final season in Montreal, he'd go 17–8 with a minuscule 1.90 ERA (led majors), 13 complete games (led majors), 4 shutouts, and 305 strikeouts to 67 walks. He won his first of 3 Cy Young awards that year. His grand totals with les Expos: 55 W, 33 L, 3.06 ERA, 20 CG, 8 SHO, 248 BB, 843 SO, 797.1 IP Then he was off to Boston, and you already know the dominance he displayed there. More Cy Young Awards, All-Star teams, a Triple Crown, a World Series championship. Total stud. I'm glad I found a way to get him into these French lessons. And speaking of these lessons, I think I'm going to make this the final one in the series, which is fitting with "corkscrew". In other words, if you've stuck with the entire series—all 13 posts—consider congratulating yourself in the only way a French baseball player would: by taking out that corkscrew, opening a bottle of wine, and enjoying a glass. (Beer is fine, too.) Thanks for reading! |
