Chalk

[Satchel Pooch]

WTF?

I heard Mike, Mike and **** Vitale mention the bracket being chalk this year three times in the span of 10 minutes this morning.

I heard my local sports guy mention chalk. I heard it on SportsCenter.

I have no idea what this means. Is this a new thing this year that everyone's saying all of a sudden?

 

[Dude]

WTF?

I heard Mike, Mike and **** Vitale mention the bracket being chalk this year three times in the span of 10 minutes this morning.

I heard my local sports guy mention chalk. I heard it on SportsCenter.

I have no idea what this means. Is this a new thing this year that everyone's saying all of a sudden?

I've heard if for a few years now. I have no idea of the orgin, but basically it means the predictable has pretty much happened. Pretty much all the top seeds have moved on in the tournament and there weren't any notable upsets yet.

 

[spnited]

Wow, do you kiddies need an education.

Chalk is an old gambling term for the favorite.

This was the best I could find as to it origin:

Chalk - When a horse is the favorite -- or has the most money bet on it -- that horse is termed the "chalk." Interestingly, this term comes from the pre-computer era of the bookie. When a bookie recorded bets on a blackboard, the odds would change over and over as more and more people bet on the favorite. The horse became known as the "chalk" because the horse's name would disappear in chalk dust as the bookie constantly erased and lowered the horse's odds.

 

[Dude]

Wow, do you kiddies need an education.

Chalk is an old gambling term for the favorite.

This was the best I could find as to it origin:

Chalk - When a horse is the favorite -- or has the most money bet on it -- that horse is termed the "chalk." Interestingly, this term comes from the pre-computer era of the bookie. When a bookie recorded bets on a blackboard, the odds would change over and over as more and more people bet on the favorite. The horse became known as the "chalk" because the horse's name would disappear in chalk dust as the bookie constantly erased and lowered the horse's odds.

Thanks.

Now, what was life like before light bulbs?

;D

 

[MileHigh]

Kids these days, sprnited.

 

[John]

Forde has used it a couple of times recently and Wetzel used it in his column today (or yesterday).

It's an somewhat obscure expression -- at least for the younger generation (or morons like me, apparently) -- but it's getting a lot of play lately.

 

[Oz]

The "PTI" guys have used it this week, too. Seems like the phrase of the week.

 

[EStreetJoe]

The prognosticator that my paper uses to supply us with the lines and predictions uses it all the time. It drives me crazy.

 

[spnited]

Why would it dirve you crazy Joe? It is a long used and commonly accepted term among gamblers .. and who are you running betting lines for if not the gamblers?

 

[Fenian_Bastard]

For us old guys, spirited. That's who.
Next week on "Know Your Elders" -- spirited and F_B tell tales of Grantland Rice and the Vikings.

 

[spnited]

Would that be the Fran Tarkenton Vikings or the Joe Kapp Vikings?

 

[playthrough]

Sheesh, I didn't think it was a generational thing. I know "chalk" but I'm not ancient.

But yes, I'll agree it's being used even more than normal during this NCAA run. People are just trying to be cute.

 

[Captain_Kirk]

Would that be the Fran Tarkenton Vikings or the Joe Kapp Vikings?

the Leif Ericson Vikings, I would surmise.

 

[spnited]

Would that be the Fran Tarkenton Vikings or the Joe Kapp Vikings?

the Leif Ericson Vikings, I would surmise.

Maybe for an old fart like F_B (or JR) but not me.

 

[EStreetJoe]

Why would it dirve you crazy Joe? It is a long used and commonly accepted term among gamblers .. and who are you running betting lines for if not the gamblers?

Wrong tense. It drove me crazy for years until I found out what it meant earlier this year.

 

[Webster]

Francesca and Russo constantly use the phrase.

 

[Johnny Dangerously]

Should the term be in a newspaper story or column? Not a gambler here, and wondering if you consider this the sort of jargon that should be limited to specialty publications. I never knew the term until this week.

Or do we just exist for the gamblers nowadays?

 

[dawgpounddiehard]

But it seems like this term, while its been around a while, has just recently popped up as a more common term when talking about the NCAA tournament.

I don't care for it.

This is along the same likes as "bump" for baseball. Tonight, Sabathia is on the bump for the Indians. WTF. Suddenly this has caught on and I dislike it very, VERY much.

When I hear it, it's like fingernails on the, um... chalkboard.

 

[Johnny Dangerously]

Waiting for the inevitable ... bump ... later in this thread.

 

[buckweaver]

I was thinking something similar as dawg: "slab", "two-bagger" and the like.

Those used to be common back in the day, too. They're cute now, but surely not efficient. Neither is "chalk."

Even if you do know what it means -- and many of us do -- when was the last time any bookie had to write out odds on a friggin' blackboard? (Hell, 40 percent of my classrooms in grade school had dry-erase boards anyway, and that was 15 years ago. For you old-timers. )

Just sounds like another attempt to be cute.