Today our podcast again will be about sports related idioms used in business contexts. Let’s cut to the chase, I mean, let’s go direct to the point and check out some of these idioms.
So, our first idiom is to make a play for something. This idiom means that we attempt, we try to gain control of something. Let me give you some examples:
Mark is being extremely nice to the boss, it sure looks like he’s making a play for a management position.
Mark’s making nice with the boss, he’s being nice and helpful because he wants to get a management position, he’s trying to get it by being nice to the boss.
They’re making a play for a new market segment with the release of that new Blu Ray thing.
Now, as the Blu Ray thing is basically new, that company is taking advantage of this new territory, these new market opportunities, to conquer new clients.
OK, let’s move on to our next idiom which is to be way out in left field. When something is way out in left field it means that this is not common, that it’s very strange and it’s not usually seen. It can also mean that someone or something is wrong.
Here are some examples:
He’s a nice guy and stuff, but he’s way out in left field. Man, what kind of ties are those he wears to work?
She’s way out in left field when she says that we don’t work hard enough. Come on, we’ve been working overtime for the past two months, isn’t that working hard enough?
In the first example we see that that guy is cool, nice and everything, but on the flip side, on the other hand, he wears some crazy, ugly or tacky ties (tacky means not fashionable), and that is strange. It’s like the character of Betty Suarez on TV show Ugly Betty, she’s very competent but wears some tacky and ugly outfits, and that is way out in left field.
In the second example, we resent that she thinks we don’t work hard enough, and that she is wrong to think that, she’s way out in left field.
Our last expression is to tackle a problem. In American football to tackle means to grab a player and throw him to the ground, so to tackle a problem is to deal with it, oftentimes it’s not an easy situation. Let’s see some examples:
Have you written that proposal about how to tackle the tax problems?
We need to tackle those problems right away, they can’t wait.
Well, this is it for today, people! See you all next time!
