malone, mathprof @9-12
Thinking about cricket and the leg side being synonymous with the on side. As it's a sideways game, a right-handed batsman (I refuse to say batter) has his left shoulder pointing towards the bowler, therefore everything to his left is on the same side as his legs, hence leg side. It's harder to explain why it should also be the on side, but everything to his right is on the off side. It's customary in the UK, with drivers on the right hand side of the car, to refer to the near side (wing mirror, front tyre e.g.) as to the left and nearer the kerb, and the off side is to the right and nearer the middle of the road. So if that's the off side then in cricket the on side is to the left. I wonder if American drivers refer to the off side and the near side?
I don't think UK solvers have to know many specialist baseball terms. In Scrabble the other day my opponent played BUNTER, which I challenged unsuccessfully. I remarked that Bunter with a capital B would refer to the fat schoolboy in literature, Billy Bunter. Capitalised words are not normally allowed in Scrabble, so I assumed that Bunter had come into the language with a small b, a bit like hoover. However, my opponent thought it was a baseball term and indeed he is right. A bunt seems to be the equivalent of a forward defensive stroke in cricket and the player who does it is a bunter. Never seen it in a crossword here, though I think we are expected to know pitcher and Babe Ruth.