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In like Flynn

Posted by Brian from Shawnee on April 13, 2011 at 02:44

In Reply to: In like Flynn posted by Eric on April 12, 2011 at 09:03:

: "In like Flynn" - My understanding has always been that that phrase comes not from Erol Flynn but from Ernest Thayer's poem "Casey at the Bat." In the poem, Flynn is "hugging third" when Casey approaches the plate. With Casey's reputation, Flynn was most certainly "in." Any thoughts?


[spoiler alert] Casey struck out to end the game, and therefore Flynn died at third. When a runner scores he "comes in" or is "batted in". When he's on second or third he's merely in "scoring position". Therefore even if there was evidence that the phrase was used before Errol Flynn became popular, I would not believe it came from Casey at the Bat.

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