Baseball and Misspoken Words

From the time I was a little kid, I used to get laughed at for messing up words. I remember how long people laughed when I referred to the basketball players crawling around the court looking for one of the player's "contract eyeballs" that had gotten knocked out. Of course it was a contact lens, and I got the words messed up. Then there was the day that I came rushing home from school, still too young to read very well myself, excitedly telling my mother that my wonderful teacher was going to be reading to us every day from two wonderful books called "The Idiot" and "The Oddity." (Of course it was the Iliad and the Odyssey.) They still tease me about that one.

Baseball lends itself to this type of error. So many players have strange names. I just had  to finally write this one down for posterity. Not only do I find it really funny, but it wasn't my verbal error this time. This one belongs to John, and happened early in the season. If I don't write it down, who will remember to tease him when I'm old and forgetful? (OK, maybe I'm already old and forgetful.)

We were listening to a Dodger game on XM radio, and I left him to listen alone while I went into the kitchen to prepare our dinner.  John came in about fifteen minutes later and said (I swear this is accurate): "Psycho's been hurt, and they put Tonto in to pitch in his place." 

It took me awhile to stop what I was doing and figure out what was really happening. Saito had been pitching, so that part was fairly easy. But Tonto? Oh, he must mean Thomko. I went in and listened. Sure enough, that's who the pitchers were. I think that's got to be as funny as the Idiot and the Oddity. Well, almost. 

By the way, how about those Rockies?