A Chinese home run–it’s a term that frankly I’ve never heard before and one that I hope I never hear again.
It was used by announcers Ryan Lefebvre and Rex Hudler Tuesday during the Kansas City – Cleveland game, reports the The Post Game.
Cleveland catcher Brett Hayes had just hit a ball far down the third base line.
“What did Monty call that last night?”
“Chinese home run?”
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What the heck is a Chinese home run?
The The Post Game cited The Dickson Baseball Dictionary as defining the phrase as a derogatory term for a home run hit over the part of the outfield fence closest to home plate.
It’s a “cheap” home run. So the term “Chinese home run” apparently goes back to the Chinese Exclusion Act and the use of Chinese immigrants as cheap laborers.
The Chinese American community protested the terms use during the World Series in 1954 when Dusty Rhoades hit a game winning three run homer in the Polo Grounds and again in 1981 when broadcaster Bill King described a home run as “not a Chinese home run.”
Its recent use is a good time for a history lesson, one that hopefully won’t have to be repeated.
