Learn English – Origins and meaning of, “Ham and Egg it”

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This term was used by a MLB sports announcer yesterday (5/10/2015 – Padres vs. Diamondbacks @ 2:10:41) talking about relying on relief pitchers.

“Diamondbacks today trying to ham and egg it with that bullpen.”

I guess the idea is that the bullpen personnel are very expensive, so just rely on that investment to get you out of a jam???

Is this idiom “a thing”? Is there an origin or more logical explanation to visualize what this idiom means?

Best Answer

ham-and-egger

Noun: an ordinary or regular person; also, a rather incompetent person.

Examples: He is a real ham-and-egger, rubbing elbows with the construction workers and plumbers and cops at the local watering hole.

Origin: from the old days when miners held boxing matches; the winner got money, the loser got a ham and egg meal

via - http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ham-and-egger

That seems like an original sports usage, but it morphed:

ham-and-egging

pp. In team sports, producing a good overall result by having different team members perform well at different times.

via - http://wordspy.com/index.php?word=ham-and-egging

Too bad there is no known etymology to the more current sports usage, however in match play golf a team will take the best score of player A on one hole, player B on another, C and D on others – and apparently (but I have no support) the term “ham and egging it” took off first in golf, and was then applied to other sports.

I don't see a direct relation to the Chicken and the Pig fable, although one might fabricate one based on a pitcher getting the Win (committed) and relief pitchers just getting a few outs without a Win or a Save (involved) - but that does not really apply to the game in question - or if it does it applies to all games and the game in question is nothing special that would merit distinction - it seems to me.

I guess I came here to see if someone could use the various online tools (that I know nothing about) to see when the term first appeared and how it was used.

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