“We want a pitcher, not a glass of water!” (a pun on the word “pitcher”) is a baseball chant that has long been popular in the Little League. The chant has been cited in print since at least 1968.
Google Books
Story: The Yearbook of Discovery
Edited by Whit Burnett and Hallie Burnett
New York, NY: Four Winds Press
1968
Pg. 108:
We want a pitcher,
Not a glass of water.
6 April 1976, Morris (IL) Daily Herald, “Morris outslugs Hall 13-11,” pg. 6, col. 1:
“We want a pitcher—not a glass of water.”
27 October 1986, New Castle (PA) News, “Baylor Boston’s top cheerleader” by Mike Tully (UPI), pg. 17, col. 2:
Roger McDowell will be no match for “We want a pitcher, not a glass of water.”
Google Books
Latin for All Occasions
By Henry Beard
New York, NY: Gotham Books
2004
Pg. ?:
LITTLE LEAGUE LATIN.
We want a pitcher, not a glass of water!
Egemus iaculatore, non Iacchi latore!
Pittsburgh (PA) Tribune
He’s not a hitter, he’s a baby sitter!
By Tom Purcell
Sunday, May 27, 2007
(...)
We want a pitcher, not a glass of water!
Stop! A glass of water! You’re suggesting the pitcher is weak and unstable like some clear fluid• Do you have any idea how hard it is to throw a ball over the plate knowing the batter might hit a home run• How would that make you feel• No more water comments. Now play ball!
Straight Dope Message Board
What’s the Longest It’s Taken You to Get a Joke?
Philster
12-18-2008, 01:12 PM
I had a friend that didn’t get a kid’s Little League (kid’s baseball) ‘joke’ (taunt) until he was almost 40 years old.
In Little League, it was always held in high regard to taunt the other team. Once typical taunt was shouted to the opposing team’s pitcher: “We want a pitcher…not a glass of water”. Well, the play on words, obviously, is that the pitcher is just well, a glass… of water. Pitcher…glass…the glass being much less than a pitcher.
My buddy never got it. He didn’t get it until we were playing Wiffle Ball one day and someone expanded on the taunt and “CLICK” he got it. And he admitted it. We’d have never known.
Twitter
harlem medic emeritu
@harlemedic
.@barrypopik how’s about “we want a pitcher, not a glass of water”? at least 1950s..
12:17 PM - 18 Jul 2015
Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.
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Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Google Maps. Stolen and missing, 2021-2024.
Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Aug. 15, 1931, Binghamton (NY) Press, pg. 14.
Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce "The Big Apple," a hit song from 1937. Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich.
Also listen to a 1937 "The Big Apple" song by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra. See a 1929 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald and a 1931 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald.
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