Inside baseball

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Inside baseball is a colloquial term in American English referring to conversations or dialog that refer to subject matter, the details of which the average member of the public would have no way of being privy to, and often concerning obscure matters that would only be of interest to the participants, leaving viewers or an audience mystified as to what is being discussed. The term has its origins in the notion that casual observers of the sport of baseball are often confused by in-depth technical discussion of the sport, and dismiss it as "inside baseball", much like an "inside joke," which is only understandable to someone with knowledge of a specific and private subject. It's orgins are also likely tied to the syndicated Inside Baseball television show that was popular in the 1980s and '90s.

This phenomenon is often found on political or legal talk shows. Sometimes inside baseball is also exhibited at symposiums for which the participants are part of a small or exclusive group, and it can even be heard during broadcasts of certain sporting events.

[edit] Examples of inside baseball

In a political talk show, the most common example of inside baseball is a "process story," in which the discussion centers on the mechanisms of politics, rather than the issues themselves.

Legal shows abound with inside baseball, including discussions about how a particular judge came to sit on the bench, and the political considerations behind a pending ruling, all of which have little to do with the merits of the case being discussed.

At a symposium, participants discussing a dispute with the judging organization that decided which papers would be presented, while the audience members fidgeted in their seats, would constitute another example.

During Olympic sporting events, commentators will sometimes diverge from discussing the activities of the participants in a sporting event, onto obscure topics involving the judging organization and the politics behind why certain judges may be scoring an event differently based upon the nationality of the competitors.

[edit] Critics and supporters

Critics of inside baseball find its usage to be exclusionary and elitist, sometimes even claiming that it is being used as a form of filibuster.

Supporters of inside baseball argue that its usage pulls back the curtain on matters that deserve to be exposed to the light of day, or otherwise elevates the importance of peripheral issues that deserve further discussion.