Comments on More Obscene Baseball News

I'm inclined to believe it's legit, too. There's just no real motive to counterfeit something like that.

So, what are the linguists saying about the origins of "cunt-lapping dog"? Or does that go a ways back?

Cunt is a pre-Shakespearean word, as is fuck (as is cock as a euphemism for penis, for that matter), so it's well within the bounds of reality that these phrases were in embarrassingly common use at the time by ballplayers. Just because we picture the past in black and white with everyone wearing a suit and speaking Oxford english doesn't mean our great-grandpappys (and mammys) weren't telling each other to get fucked. It meant the same thing then as it does now, they just wrote it down for posterity less than we do.

Yah! "Cunt lapping dogs" has a very 19th century ring to it. Got to remember that one!

Remember who played baseball in 1898. It wasn't today's tightly-groomed college boys. It wasn't the false image of the hayseed farmer boy, either; baseball has always been an urban game. It was Irishmen, Germans, Bohunks, and other fairly recent immigrants of the lower classes. The Berkeley prof may not have ever encountered people like that in his studies.

Or it could be a hoax. I'd like to see some forensics on the paper, ink, typewriter, etc. All of these features you mention could be faked by someone well-steeped in the era.

"...has hit the online the online MSM"? Hate to burst your bubble, but The Stranger is part of the MSM.

Anybody got an image of the document?

Greg - Click on the first link of the post for the images.