香蕉久久综合-香蕉久久夜色精品国产尤物-香蕉久久夜色精品国产-香蕉久久久久-久久网站视频-久久网免费

Reader's question:  

Politicians can argue whether the best quality for a judge is empathy or an ability to call balls and strikes, but here's a different perspective.

Could you explain "call balls and strikes"?

My comments:

Balls and strikes are expressions borrowed from the game of baseball, which is arguably the No.1 sport in America.

Baseball basically involves a player throwing a rubber ball at another player, holding a club in hand ready to hit the ball being thrown at him.

Now, a judge, called an empire, stands (or squats, to be precise) behind the hitter to observe whether the thrower (pitcher) has thrown a legal shot, which must come within a space that is, say, higher than the knee and lower than the shoulder of the club holder. I'm not going into specifics but you get the picture. When the pitcher throws a legal shot and the hitter misses the hit (fails to hit the ball legally), it's a strike! That's good. Point to the pitcher.

If the pitcher fails to make a legal throw, on the other hand, it's called a ball. That's bad. Point to the hitter.

Three strikes and the pitcher wins – the hitter is out. Four balls and the pitcher lose, allowing the hitter to move on to the next base….

Hence the ability to "call balls and strikes" refers to the ability of a competent judge in the court of law to tell right from wrong.

Related stories:

With a grain of salt

Drive home

Out of nowhere

Shove it under the carpet

the sky is the limit

hit it off

get my rib in my heart

With bells on

No harm, no foul

Pick up the slack

length and breadth of

get up to speed on something

Borrowed time

On a shoestring

Shake a leg

Sing to a new tune

Truth lies somewhere in the middle

For all intents and purposes

Past praying for

本文僅代表作者本人觀點，與本網立場無關。歡迎大家討論學術問題，尊重他人，禁止人身攻擊和發布一切違反國家現行法律法規的內容。

Zhang Xin has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.