In baseball, a pitch deliberately thrown at or near a batter's head, meant to intimidate them.
From 'bean' (slang for 'head,' from the shape similarity) plus 'ball,' a compound created in early 20th-century baseball slang to describe this dangerous pitch.
Baseball slang is poetry: you've got 'bean' (hit on the head), 'chin music' (high inside pitches), and 'beanball.' These colorful terms reveal how sports create their own miniature languages with humor and creativity.
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