go to bat
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English
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Verb
[edit]go to bat (third-person singular simple present goes to bat, present participle going to bat, simple past went to bat, past participle gone to bat)
- (baseball) To be the individual or team that is currently batting; play offense.
- 1875 June, University of Michigan, “Various Topics”, in The Chronicle, page 201:
- Turner hit to short right and took his first, and then his second by a wild throw of Winslow, but was trapped between second and third and put out by Stearns. Detroit thus retired without recording a tally, and the University again went to bat.
- 1968 December, A.S. Young, “Jackie Opens the Door — Wide!”, in Ebony, page 136:
- Robinson went to bat for the last time that day in the eighth inning, singling for his fourth straight hit.
- (figurative) To be aggressive, to be assertive, to actively pursue a goal or action.
- 1980, Jack Horner, My Own Brand, page 96:
- The fastest way to destroy one's credibility in Ottawa or anywhere else is to go to bat over something frivolous. I recall Dan McKenzie (Winnipeg South Centre) coming to see me with an article he'd picked up that said metrification would result in a ten-hour day. He even had a picture of the new clock.
- 1995, Tom Clancy, Debt of Honor, page 249:
- Barb, you have to hang in there kid. […] Two more weeks, maybe three, and we go to bat, Barb.
- (idiomatic, usually with for) To champion, to actively assist, to provide support (for someone).
- 1955, Edwin Strickland, Gene Wortsman, Phenix City, page 172:
- If he had been guided along the path of righteousness and worked hard for honest people, “Ashie” would have been a good man. But he was, indeed, a victim of circumstances in that he went to bat for the wrong side.
- 1968, Maneck Wadia, Management and the Behavioral Sciences, page 187:
- Among foremen who often “go to bat” for their men, encouraging efficiency brings an improvement in group production norms