Inside Baseball in the United States

Inside Baseball (in Politics)

Related to political science, the following is a definition of Inside Baseball in the U.S. practice of politics: The intricate knowledge of a process not normally known to the public and only of interest to insiders.

William Safire: “From its sports context comes its political or professional denotation: minutiae savored by the cognoscenti, delicious details, nuances discussed and dissected by aficionados. In politics, candidates who say they want to discuss larger issues look down their noses at the journalists and think-tankers who bedevil them with questions about campaign techniques, fund-raising plans and poll results. To them, inside baseball has a pejorative connotation that the phrase never gained in the baseball world.”