First I’d like to thank this site. I was startled at my job that no one who I eat lunch with was familiar with the expression “chips on the ball” even though a few are my
contemporaries (I’m 43), and they insisted “it must have been a Mineola thing.” I
proved them wrong via your site.

I am now seeking to clear up something that bothered me a lot this baseball season–hearing
Yankee announcer Michael Kay referring to the 9th inning as being “last licks” for both
teams. My childhood interpretation from our neighborhood was that ONLY the
home team could get “last licks”, because they were the last to have an opportunity to bat. Indeed, in our neighborhood stickball contests, the ONLY advantage of being designated the home team was that you had last licks and the other team didn’t.
What say you? Please reply either publicly or privately.
Gary
callisto [at] optonline [dot] net