The word yannigan, meaning “a member of a scrub team in baseball,” may come from an alteration of “young one.” This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Yannigan”
Grant, please spell Yannigan.
Yannigan. Y-A-N-N-I-G-A-N. Yannigan.
Yes, that’s right.
What does it mean? Don’t ask me to define it.
Oh, you want to define it? It’s a member of a scrub team in baseball.
Oh, okay, okay. This is ringing some bells.
Is it?
I’ve paged through Dixon’s Baseball Dictionary before.
Okay.
A Yannigan.
A scrub team.
So these are the guys you bring in when the lead is like you’re 20 points up and you just want to give everybody a shot at the bat.
Yeah.
The scrub team.
So do you know where it comes from?
A particularly poor player from the 1800s?
I don’t know.
Joe Yannigan.
A comic.
Probably a comic strip in 1920.
It sounds like it, doesn’t it?
We don’t know for sure where it comes from, but it may be an alteration of young one.
Young one.
Yannigan.
A young one.
Those Yannigans hanging out in front of the 7-Eleven.
So young one becomes young and becomes Yannigan?
Yeah.
I can see that.
Yeah, I can see it too.
How about that?
Yannigan.
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