Question: “I'm sure you are familiar with the baseball term "bullpen'. We were wondering where the word originated. Does it really have to do with a place . . . normally reserved for bulls (where) players would sit waiting to get in a game? I bet you know the answer.”

        Answer: The Stupid Desk knows almost everything about baseball and baseball lingo. But, after a collective shrug of the shoulders, we dribbled down court and punted the question to John Erardi, Enquirer sports writer. You will be interested to know that the term has Cincinnati roots. The original “bulls” were local fans waiting for cheap seats in 1877.

        “Bullpen goes back to the days when late-arriving fans were "herded' into an area in foul territory that was enclosed by a fence or a rope and then let into the seats at a discounted price,” Mr. Erardi says.

        Sort of like stand-by travelers at the airport, we're guessing.

        “By the early 1900s, the name bullpen was borrowed to describe the area in foul ground where pitchers' mounds were located for pitchers to warm up.”

        Which is what the bullpen amounts to today.

        So our original theory about a runaway range cow that escaped from a slaughter house in Camp Washington and made her way to a ball field — just to see Leon Spinks pitch one last game — would have been slightly off the mark.

        If you have a stupid question, send it to Ask a Stupid Question, Cincinnati Enquirer, 312 Elm St., Cincinnati OH 45202; fax: 768-8330; e-mail: mpulfer@enquirer.com.

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