Glossary
Following baseball, at the best of times, can be a confusing little endeavor, full of obscure terminology and phrasing no one has ever heard, or will ever hear, anywhere but on a baseball field. A lexicon seems a small grace to ask, under the circumstances.
For general vocabulary, Baseball-Reference’s English-to-Spanish reference is an invaluable resource. What we offer here is an addendum, which covers terms and phrases that are not simple translations from the boricua Spanish unique to the Insular Republic.
| TERM | CATEGORY | TRANSLATION | MEANING |
|---|---|---|---|
| almanaquero | League | almanacker | Writers, scorers, statisticians and other personnel attached to the Almanaque, the LNP’s archival publication meant primarily for internal consumption. Initially composed purely of game scores and small notes, grew in time into a comprehensive record of every season whose publication became a significant revenue stream for the league in the twentieth century. |
| Alpinisti | History | Mountain Climbers | Red-clad irregular unit of the Insular Forces led by none other than Italian nationalist hero Giuseppe Garibaldi, whose arrival on the island is believed to be the first turning point in the rebels’ fortunes. More than numbers or even morale, the Alpinisti provided the Insular Forces with a regiment capable of operating on rough, mountainous terrain, which made them a key formation in the Southeastern Campaign of 1869 that ended at Maunabo and the core of the revolutionary army that pushed the Spaniards out of Aguas Buenas, opening the East to the Insular Government. |
| analfabeto | History | illiterate | Designation used for soldiers in the Army of National Liberation who could neither read nor write; unsurprisingly common in an army made up mostly of peasants and former enslaved men. See Informe General. |
| antetiempo | Season | foretime | Preseason; period of time during which teams train for the upcoming campaign, play exhibition games, and sign last-minute free agents to plug holes in the roster. |
| Batallón Descalzo | History | Shoeless Battalion | Unit of the Army of National Liberation improvised from the masses of men who crossed the island, usually without guns, boots, or anything else resembling appropriate equipment, to join the inchoate rebellion, and whom the Insular Government initially treated as an unwelcome stress on their food supplies. An unsurprisingly ineffective formation, considering that it never exceeded around five hundred men in total, a startling lack of resources, and rampant poaching of its most skilled men by other Insular Forces outfits. Disbanded in 1870, with most of its soldiers redirected to the Eastern Campaign under Garibaldi’s command. |
| Batallón Eleuterio Gómez | History | Eleuterio Gómez Battalion | Officially the 1st (and only) Battalion, 9th Regiment of the Army of National Liberation, intended to incorporate any men the revolutionaries emancipated, before high command realized it made far more sense to integrate them into existing units. Named for Eleuterio Gómez (1845-1868), an enslaved man in Ponce who, upon hearing of the Revolution, killed his owner and attempted to flee to the Insular Government. Gómez was caught and hanged by the municipal government, which would soon be ejected by the Red Lions, who first created a battalion in his name. It never exceeded two hundred men in size, and was disbanded shortly after the War of National Liberation. |
| Bracetista | History | follower of Mariana Bracetti | Western faction of the Partido Radical, one of the main political bodies of the nineteeth-century Insular Republic. As befits their nickname, motivated more by the agrarian concerns common in the west of the island than by the predicaments of the (admittedly sparse) urban industrial proletariat. Provided necessary support for the strong Radical governments of the 1880s; in the next decade, during the pre-Repulsión split, became the core of the Asociación Popular de Borinquen. See Carvajalista. |
| bucherón | Batting | lumberjack (Fr.) | Slugger or power hitter, especially if of Anglophone extraction and particularly if tall, extremely muscular, bearded, or any combination of the above. Originated in the early 20th century after players from the Royal Canadian Baseball League joined the Liga Nacional Puertorriqueña and demonstrated their very different hitting style. |
| calesa | Pitching | barouche | Rotation in which two pitchers alternate starting games, with an occasional emergency starter used if neither starter is rested. See faetón. |
| campeonato | Season | championship | Postseason or playoffs, especially in smaller leagues with fewer rounds. In LNP baseball, the last two rounds of the postseason: the Campeonato de Las Ligas for the Betances and Hostos pennants, and the Campeonato Nacional Puertorriqueño for the national title. See torneo. |
| cañón inglés | Pitching History | English cannon | Pitcher who looks good through two or three innings, then falls apart in the midgame. A reference to the castoff artillery pieces the English surreptitiously provided to the Army of National Liberation, which had a worrying tendency to explode or break down at particularly dramatic moments. |
| carrusel | Pitching | merry-go-round | Pitching staff in such dire straits that every member must be ready to enter every game, regardless of situation or fatigue. The most consistent feature of historically bad teams. |
| Carvajalista | History | follower of Eduardo Carvajal Sánchez | Northern and southern faction of the Partido Radical, one of the main political bodies of the nineteeth-century Insular Republic. As befits their nickname, motivated more by the concerns of industrial workers whose power was largely concentrated in the large cities along the northern and southern coasts. The eponymous Eduardo Carvajal Sánchez became the third President of the Insular Republic in 1882 while he led the faction and stayed in power for ten years; in the 1890s, during the pre-Repulsión split, became the core of the Partido del Obrero Puertorriqueño. See Bracetista. |
| Carvajal Toro, Rogelio | History | N/A | First Deputy Commissioner of Liga Hostos (1871-73), who ended his service to the Liga Nacional Puertorriqueña early by the unfortunate expedient of working himself to death. Chosen personally for his role by Commissioner Brugman, who saw potential in the young clerk’s twitchy disposition as the Deputy Notary to the Insular Assembly, though he failed to correctly attribute it to the still-unidentified illness that would kill said clerk a few years later. A first cousin of catcher Eugenio Carvajal. |
| cola(d)o | Season | snuck in | Team that makes the postseason either by unexpectedly taking the division banner from a more established rival or winning a surprising wild card. See sembra(d)o. |
| contrato animador | League | animating contract | Nineteenth-century equivalent to a contract including a major league option, insofar as it gave a team thirty days into a season to decide whether to promote a player to the roster. Since the minor leagues did not exist at the time, players technically had a choice to elect free agency, but we have no evidence that any of them ever did. After free agency was enshrined in law during the 1920s, animadores became a much more balanced concept, allowing teams to gamble on getting the most out of players they might otherwise remain unapproached. |
| contrato completo | League | complete contract | Nineteenth-century equivalent to a major league contract. Players on completos were officially employed by the team and drew salaries from their budget. They were either on the active roster or, if reservists, traveled with the team in order to substitute for injured players. |
| contrato simple | League | simple contract | Nineteenth-century (and very rough) equivalent of a minor league contract. Players who signed simples simply promised a team first call on services. They could receive cash up front, or were sometimes promised a salary if they were added to the active roster early in the season. |
| Correos Insulares | History | Insular Mail | Official mail carrier of the Insular Republic of Puerto Rico. Despite being an enumerated power of the Insular Government under the 1869 and 1876 constitutions, run as a semi-private concern until it was declared the second Empeño Nacional in 1880, which elevated it to a dedicated government ministry. Replaced by the ministerial-level agency Correos de Borínquen in the early 20th century, which then rebranded as Boricorreos in 2004. |
| desgracia(d)o | Season | miserable | Team that cannot seem to make the postseason no matter what it does, either due to divisional dominance from a rival, bad luck with injuries, or general incompetence from the front office. |
| diligencia | Pitching | diligence | Rotation made up of four or more pitchers, which became standard in the early twentieth century and (in its strict definition as requiring four pitchers) remained the dominant philosophy until the 1940s. |
| discutiendo azules | Idioms | arguing about blues | A pejorative cousin to “shooting the breeze,” implying that the subject of the conversation is unimportant. Popularized by Nationalist members of the Constitutional Assembly (1872-1876), who seized upon the debate on the official colors of the Puerto Rican flag as an example of a superficial issue that had taken too long to resolve, and who did not bother to respond when asked whether their disregard was motivated by the other issue raised on the same day, by the same delegate: extending suffrage to women. |
| Empeño Nacional | History | National Endeavor | Designation of the Insular Republic for an industry, service or other activity that provided, according to the 1879 law that established it, a “specific and necessary advantage” for the Insular Government, and should therefore be entitled to make certain demands on public resources, usually counterbalanced by requiring greater involvement from the state. First used to bring the messy network of squabbling independent railways under a coordinating ministry. One of the earliest nicknames for the Liga Nacional Puertorriqueña, used (somewhat derisively) by opposition papers since the late 1880s, just a few years after the league was declared (ironically) the fourth Empeño Nacional. Abolished under the 1901 Constitution; periodic attempts to revive the status have not prospered. |
| empila(d)o | Idioms | batteried up | On a hot streak; unexpectedly overperforming, especially under postseason-related pressure. From the Puerto Rican idiom ponerse las pilas, (lit., “to put one’s batteries in”), which refers to getting to work or taking a situation seriously. |
| enmantequillarse | Fielding | to butter oneself | Make an error, especially one in which the fielder catches the ball and lets it slip through his fingers. Such an error is usually referred to as an enmantequillamiento. |
| faetón | Pitching | phaeton | Rotation in which two pitchers alternate starting games, especially if the pitchers do not appear to have the stamina to last through whole games. See calesa. |
| fogón | Pitching | oven | Bullpen or armbarn. Taken from the image of “warming up” an arm. |
| incólume | Pitching | unscathed | A perfect game. Originally suggested by Federico Hecht Guillén (1858-1928) in his capacity as publisher of, and baseball writer for, Maunabo publication La Esquina to refer to a no-hitter; by the early twentieth century, had come to refer to a much more difficult achievement. See pulcro. |
| Informe General | History | General Report | Haphazardly-compiled document from 1870 that purported to be a detailed count of the Army of National Liberation. Sources disagree—virulently—as to how complete, or useful, it was. More completely titled Informe General de las Fuerzas Insulares. |
| invernales | Season | winterlies | Annual meetings during which LNP sponsors and personnel meet with league officials to decide on various regulatory matters and, usually, to wheel and deal as necessary. Rotated location before finding permanent housing near the beach at Rompebote, where many functions are still held today. |
| La Central | League | The Central | Enduring nickname for the headquarters of the Liga Nacional Puertorriqueña, whether the physical plant or the executive nerve center housed therein. By synecdoche, any of the league’s various governing bodies over the years, especially those under the direct control of the Commissioner. Taken from the Puerto Rican term for a sugar mill. |
| letrado | History | literate | Designation used for soldiers in the Army of National Liberation who could functionally read and write. Such men were often sought out for sergeancies or other important positions requiring these abilities. See Informe General. |
| Ley Brugman | League | Brugman Law | Customary policy of the Liga Nacional Puertorriqueña that prefers all positions, at both team and league levels, should be filled by promoting “baseball people,” broadly defined as former ballplayers or people currently employed by a baseball team, so that the Liga Nacional Puertorriqueña does not become simply another business. Detractors believe this to be responsible for the LNP’s extremely insular and (until recently) overly-masculine work culture, though the Ley now usually includes employees of teams outside of the LNP system and allows for the hiring of entry-level positions outside of the organization. |
| Marcha de los Capitanes | History | March of the Captains | Relief operation in which some of the few fresh troops left in the Insular Forces came to the aid of General Rojas, who was locked in combat with the Spaniard beachhead forces at Arecibo, by a forced march from Mayagüez, where many of them had been serving on guard duty due to rumors of an impending attack on the rebel capital. The name comes from the fact that individual companies had not been restructured into any sort of battalion or regimental command before departing, so their movements were all directed by their superior officers, many of whom were promoted after the peace was signed. |
| martillero/a | History | hammerman/woman | Former enslaved persons who revolted, escaped, and formed militias to take violent action against the slaveholding class. Name stems from an incident in which Getulio Perales García, a particularly abusive slaveholder whose lands straddled Vega Alta and Vega Baja, was beaten to death in his bed by several of his former enslaved farmworkers. In time, supplied the name of Vega Alta’s Liga Nacional Puertorriqueña team. |
| Mártir de la República | History | Martyr of the Republic | During the four grim and brutal years of La Repulsión, around 40,000 Puerto Ricans—men and women both—gave their lives, in combat or out of it, to safeguard not only their own independence, but midwife Cuba’s into the bargain. Though all 40,000 are memorialized on the walls of the Aula Nacional in San Juan, those who died in active combat with the Spanish were separately recognized for their sacrifices by the Puerto Rican government. |
| Misérrimo | Fielding | the Saddest | Unofficial “award” given by the players of the Liga Nacional Puertorriqueña to the clumsiest fielder in each league, all the way back to the 1871 season. Surprisingly, predates all other individual distinctions in the Liga Nacional Puertorriqueña by over a decade; despite ongoing and contradictory rumors, no associated ceremony or physical object has ever been confirmed to accompany it. |
| montonero | Pitching | mounder | Pitcher of average quality but decent stamina, who mostly appears in situations where someone still has to pitch. Similar to the English term “mop-up man.” |
| Nacionalista, Partido | History | Nationalist Party | One of the two major political formations in the Insular Republic, whose support was especially concentrated in the agrarian East and among the middle class. Paradoxically Hispanophile for much of the 1870s during the presidency of General Rojas; his retirement from politics set the party adrift, as pro-France and pro-United States factions vied for power. Returned in the 1890s in the run-up to La Repulsión, after which the constitutional annoyances of the early Republic forced it to split into the mercantile Partido Soberano and the more agrarian Partido Auténtico. |
| Orden del Ausubo | History | Order of Bulletwood | Among the Republic of Puerto Rico’s many postwar honorifics, this one—named for a wood so dense that it fails to float in water—is specifically awarded to those who act as pillars of their community over long periods of time. |
| Pelotón Tragao | History | Swallowed Platoon | Volunteer unit named as a rather patibular pun on their exploits in the town of Comerío, whose name is supposedly derived from a man yelling ¡ay, que me come el río! (“oh no, the river’s going to eat me!”). At its “founding,” the Pelotón comprised around 25 men, each of whom received a rifle, a machete, a (notoriously unreliable) grenade, whatever ammunition could be spared, and the encouragements and prayers of their comrades, who were otherwise quite surrounded by the Spanish Army. They began their grueling campaign in October of 1869; the last of the survivors rejoined the Insular Forces ten months later. |
| peor que cuando Téllez fue al cuartel | Idioms | worse than when Téllez went to the police station | Expression very local to Camuy, indicating an unnecessary debacle that proves embarrassing to its instigator. Relevant to Tibulo Gallegos’ career. |
| Primera Asamblea Constituyente | History | First Constituent Assembly | Meeting of elected deputies from all over the island that, from 1872 to 1876, formulated the first actual independent constitution to have force in Puerto Rico, also known as the Constitution of 1876, the Insular Constitution and the Constitution of Ramírez Medina. Despite operating in some capacity since 1868, the Insular Republic that signed peace with the Spaniards technically had no basic law governing its structure; the Asamblea remedied this hardship, and the Constitution of 1876 remained in force until after La Repulsión, when it was replaced by the Constitution of 1902 under the newly-inaugurated Republic of Puerto Rico. |
| pulcro | Pitching | beautiful | A no-hitter. Despite speculation pointing to various sportswriters and even the headquarters of the Liga Nacional Puertorriqueña itself, a term with no known originator. In common use by 1903. See incólume. |
| quitrín | Pitching | gig | “Rotation” made up of one pitcher. That is, only one pitcher on the roster is officially registered as a starter, with others called to start games as needed. An unsustainable proposition for any but the shortest seasons. |
| Radical, Partido | History | Radical Party | One of the two major political formations in the Insular Republic, whose support was generally confined to the working class in the industrializing cities along the coasts and some agrarian pockets in the West. Despite sporting many of the era’s most celebrated rhetoricians, did not enter power until the 1880s, after which it promptly split into the Western agro-populist Asociación Popular de Borinquen and the more traditionally social-democratic Partido Obrero Puertorriqueño. See Bracetista and Carvajalista. |
| Ramírez Medina, Francisco | History | N/A | First President of the Insular Republic of Puerto Rico (1868-1871), who led the Insular Government through three turbulent years of revolution. His reward was being displaced by his own chief soldier, General Rojas, on whom he promptly avenged himself as President of the Constitutional Assembly (1872-1876). |
| raspaquepinta | Batting Pitching | strips-and-paints | Laudatory term for: 1. A player who can not only play many different positions on the field, but handle them all capably, as a boricua equivalent to the English term superutility. 2. A pitcher who can serve as an effective arm either in the rotation or from the bullpen, especially if they need little warning to prepare for either role. Equivalent, in this use, to the English term swingman. From the saying lo mismo raspa que pinta, a Puerto Rican expression often translated as jack of all trades. |
| Recóndito, el | History | the Remote One | Military hospital whose frenzied construction (on the then-uninhabited island of Culebra) and equally intense defense from Spaniard attacks is the subject of some of the most defabulated exploits of the Army of National Liberation. Eventually, it was replaced by a more permanent structure suitable for use as a veterans’ home. The current edition of the Recóndito, its fourth, was inaugurated in 1987. |
| Repulsión, la | History | the Repulsion | Name given to Puerto Rico and Cuba’s successful defense of their national territory, from 1898 to 1901, against the predatory forces of the United States Army and Navy, which saw an opportunity to replace Spain as the imperial masters of the Caribbean. Source of both the twentieth-century Puerto Rican Monoestrellada flag, which reversed Cuban colors in honor of their common defense, and an amicable rivalry between the two islands, where it is usual to note that more American troops were required in Cuba, but more of them died in Puerto Rico. |
| relevo | Pitching | reliever | Pitcher who could only be trusted to last one or two innings, and therefore was never called upon to start a game. Unlike many other insults for pitchers, this one died out by the middle of the twentieth century. |
| ronda | Season | round | Period of time it takes a baseball team to play all of its possible opponents at least once, often used as a way of dividing up the season into meaningful tranches. In the Liga Nacional Puertorriqueña, for example, a ronda lasts at least 38 games into the season. Teams or players may be evaluated on the production of their first, second, third or fourth ronda. |
| seisifuera | Pitching | six-and-out | Pitcher who for whatever reason can’t seem to complete a game, which in the nineteenth century was seen as the bare minimum of effort. Similar to the USian “five-and-dive.” |
| sembra(d)o | Season | planted | Team that makes the postseason every year, especially if it does so by regularly winning the division banner. |
| señalamiento | History | pointing out | Textual recognition provided by generals in the Army of Liberation to worthy soldiers, since they could spare neither the metal nor the labor to strike medals during the Revolution. The honor of being a señalado was later buttressed with an automatic promotion and a small pension. |
| tiramierda | Pitching | shit-thrower | Pitcher of absolutely terrible quality in every way. Often regarded as fighting words. |
| torneo | Season | tournament | Postseason or playoffs; after the main season is concluded, each team that won their division, plus a suitable number of wild cards, advances to a tournament to decide the league champion for the year. In LNP baseball, used to refer specifically to the first three rounds—the Series Preliminar, Eliminatoria and Interdivisional. See campeonato. |
| Torre de San Blas | History | Tower of Saint Blaise | Breathtakingly grandiose name for the hastily-erected wooden “fortification” the Red Lions erected to mark the northeastern border of their territory, shortly before the Treaty of Orocovis joined them to the Insular Government. Served as a lookout and rally point for soldiers entering Spanish-held territory in the eastern Cordillera. |
| troica | Pitching | troika | Rotation made up of three pitchers. Later, when four-, five- and six-man rotations became standardized during the season, referred to the three pitchers most teams would use as starters during the playoffs. |
| tronco | Batting | trunk | Middle of the batting order, which usually features a team’s best sluggers and run drivers. |
| turista | Pitching | tourist | Pitcher who, whether due to injuries or his team’s usage philosophy, only seems to make occasional visits to the mound. |