rubber game

[smazza]

today usm/usf

[bulls96go]

why the name "rubber game"

[smazza]

that is agood trivia question i do not know the answer to

bullo would know

typically when a series is tied  1-1, 2-2 the deciding game is called rubber game or rubber match

[BULLO12]

From the Word Detective:

It is used in the card game bridge.  A set of three games of bridge is still generally referred to as a "rubber."  Thus the third game of any series now is referred to as the rubber game.  

Or it might be a metaphorical use of "rubber" (something that expunges) referring to the "sudden death" third game of a series, the loss of which would conclusively "rub out" the losing team's hopes. But there is, sad to say, no solid evidence for either theory.

[Papa_Bull]

Here is one answer:

Rub out time.

Dear Word Detective: We often hear baseball sportscasters refer to the "rubber game" of a series, usually the tie-breaking last game of a three-game series in which each team has already won one game. Knowing what a sports fan you are, we thought we'd ask you about the origin of this term. Our dictionary has no idea, and "Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable" says something about whist and bridge and bowls that we don't understand. -- Rick and Jaye Freyer, via the internet.

Whist and bridge and bowls, oh my! According to Paul Dickson's The New Dickson's Baseball Dictionary (Harcourt Brace, 1999), a "rubber game" is "The last and deciding game of a series when the previous games have been split; e.g., the seventh game of the World Series." This tie-breaking sense of "rubber" apparently originated in the pulse-pounding English game of "bowls," or lawn bowling. Despite its name, bowls has little in common with American bowling, and consists of rolling wooden balls (called "bowls") across a level green, the object being to get your ball as close as possible to (but not to hit) a little white ball at the other end of the green. "Rubber" in its tie-breaking sense first appeared in the context of bowls around 1599, and was in use by the card-playing crowd (whist, bridge, etc.) by 1744. A set of three games of bridge is still generally referred to as a "rubber."

Unfortunately, no one knows where "rubber" in this sense came from. It appears to be unrelated to the elastic sort of "rubber." (Incidentally, our modern elastic "rubber" is short for "India-rubber," from its original source in the East Indies. "Rubber" previously meant anything used to rub, smooth or clean.) Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable ventures that the term may have referred to two "bowls" rubbing together, a fatal error in the game of bowls. Or it might be a metaphorical use of "rubber" (something that expunges) referring to the "sudden death" third game of a series, the loss of which would conclusively "rub out" the losing team's hopes. But there is, sad to say, no solid evidence for either theory.

[Papa_Bull]

Looks like we used the same source.  ;D

[smazza]

i knew bullo wouldn't disappoint

and howiep is no slouch