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June 09, 2005
"Tip-off" vs. "Tap-off"
A few days ago my wife, Marilyn Rea Beyer, who is an announcer at Boston radio station WUMB, came across a wire-service sports story that said that the "tap-off" of that nights Celtics game would be at such-and-such a time. She called me up.
"Have you ever heard of a tap-off" she said. "I always thought it was tip-off." I was unable to offer any definitive answer.
Several times over the course of the next week we heard sports announcers use the expression "tap-off," occasioning much grumbling by Marilyn, who was convinced they should be saying "tIp-off." This morning I phoned her at work to tell her of a sports report I heard on the radio concerning the commencement of the NBA Finals tongiht which referred to the "tip off, or tap-off, whicher you prefer."
"It must be some kind of recent usage" said Marilyn, who rightly prides herself on her knowledge of the English language "I never heard that before this week."
"Tip-off" vs. "Tap-off." I was quickly off to the historical databse of the New York Times, which offers full-text NYT articles going back more than 150 years, a time which predates the invention of basketball. Here, I was sure, I would find the answer. And I did.
What I found is that in the New York TImes, "Tip-off" is used about ten times as often as "tap-off" in basketball related stories. But "tap-off" is no new usage. I found basketball stories referring to the "tap-off" that dated back to 1925.
My favorite in this group was a wonderfulstory dating from Feb 5, 1929. The headline: 'Abolition of the Tap-off from Centre urged at College Basketball Meeting in Ithaca." Here's the excerpt that caught my eye:
"The coaches were unanimous in the opinion that the tap-off as at present constituted places a premium on the height of the centre and is obviously unfair and discriminatory toward a team not possessing a tall man." Truer words were never spoken.
Marilyn took the news with good grace, though after ruminating on it for a while, she said that it must be an east coast thing.
"They certainly never said "tap-off" in Chicago!"
I guess its off to the archives again...
Posted by rickbeyer at June 9, 2005 06:02 PM
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