Why is it that sports announcers say someone has a rocket for an arm? This is usually said about outfielders and quarterbacks, sometimes pitchers.
Shouldn’t it be that they have a rocket launcher for an arm? Isn’t the ball in fact the rocket?
10 thoughts on “Why is it?”
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Dang it! You’re right! I never really thought about it, but you are right!
Hmph, that’s now going to drive me batty every time I hear it.
The rocket is the Motor.
The ball, satellite, rock is the Payload
Those sportscasters are right! You’re wrong.
Ephraim F. Moya
Not that I understand rocket scientist (I so often hear “This ain’t rocket science,” at work) but it seems to me the motor travels with the payload in the case of rocketry.
I haven’t seen that in a baseball or football game.
Perhaps saying they have a catapult for an arm might be a more appropriate metaphor.
But then again since when have we expected to hear anything logical from sportscasters?
Technically, a rocket is a type of reaction thruster in which the fuel and the oxidizer are both carried along. Contrast that with a jet engine which gets its oxygen from the atmosphere.
Big rockets often jettison the motor when it is no longer useful. ie. When all the fuel and oxidizer are used up.
I like the metaphor of the catapult. Rocket has turned into a very imprecise word.
I’ve got one: “meteoric rise.”
Meteors don’t rise; they fall. In fact, the crash and burn. Why is a “meteoric rise” a good thing?
Ah bullshit. The arm is a cannon propelling the ball.
Love to hear one of them say, “he has a real atlatl for an arm, Joe”.
I’ve always preferred a cannon for an arm.
I always thought it should be illegal for these quarterbacks to have rockets/rocket launchers/cannons for arms. Seems dangerous.
I like bazooka. With bazooka you work in allusions to both acceleration and bubble gum.