The Baltimore Chop

The longevity of some expression show us how baseball has really become an integral part of our world after many decades. The Baltimore Chop was a hitting technique used by batters during Major League Baseball's dead ball era. This technique was an important element of John McGraw's "Inside baseball". Popularized and named after the original Baltimore Orioles, the batter would intentionally hit the ball downward to the hard ground in front of home plate, resulting in a high bounce which allowed the batter to reach first base safely before the opposing team could field it. To give the ball the maximum bounce, Baltimore grounds keeper Tom Murphy not only packed the dirt tightly around home plate, but mixed it with hard clay. Speedy Orioles players like John McGraw, Joe Kelley, Steve Brodie, and Wee Willie Keeler — who once legged out a double off a Baltimore chop — were the practitioners and perfectors of the hit.

The technique is rarely employed in modern baseball, but sometimes results accidentally when a batter swings over the ball and it catches the bat.