Reader question:

Please explain “ball park number” in this sentence: He said he forgot the exact price for the T-shirt, but gave me a ball park number, like, 30 dollars.

My comments:

He forgot exactly how much he paid for the T-shirt but estimated that he paid something like 30 dollars for it.

By giving you a “ball park number”, he means to say this number, 30, should be in the ball park, i.e. close to the right price.

If you want to buy the same thing, at least you have a rough idea how much it costs – somewhere between, say, 25 and 35, or something like that.

The actual figure may turn out to be 29.99 or 34.90, but it shouldn’t be too far off. If it would turn out to cost 199 dollars, for example, then your friend’s original estimate would be considered not “within the ball park”, but “out of the ball park” entirely.

In other words, off the mark by a big margin.

“Ball park” is an American colloquialism originally referring to the playing field of the game of baseball, the American national pastime. In baseball, one of the most exciting spectacles is the home run, when the ball is hit so hard that it travels all the way to the stands, i.e. out of the playing area.

When the ball goes out of the playing area, of course, it is out of play. There’s nothing you can do about it.

On the other hand, if the ball is within the ball park, you can at least do something about it.

Hence and by extension, when Americans metaphorically say something is “in the ball park”, they mean to say it’s within reach, range, reason. In other words, it’s somewhere close enough to work with.

In our example, that “ball park number” remains useful as a rough guide. If you want to buy the same shirt, you can probably assure yourself that you can have it by setting aside 50 dollars for it, being on the safe side.

Choosing to be on the very safe side, that is. 35 dollars may very well do.

To sum up once again, by giving 30 dollars as a “ball park number”, your friend means to say that 30 dollars is more or less correct, something close to the right amount, or at least not too much off the mark.

To use another American expression, 30 dollars is somewhere in the neighborhood of being accurate.

If not in the same neighborhood, then certainly the same universe.

That’s taking making rough estimates to the roughest extreme, but you get the picture.

You get the picture, that is, no matter how blurred and grainy it is.

Here are recent media examples of ball park:

1. He’s no Gene Simmons (Simmons claims that he’s slept with over 4,000 women), but Playboy mogul Hugh Hefner admits that the total number of ladies he’s slept with is in the thousands.

In a new interview with Esquire magazine, the magazine founder admits that he’s not entirely sure (apparently he didn’t keep a Polaroid flip book like the KISS rocker), but hasa ball park number. He told the mag, “How could I possibly know? Over a thousand, I’m sure.”

“There were chunks of my life when I was married, and when I was married I never cheated. But I made up for it when I wasn’t married. You have to keep your hand in.”

Hefner, who is on marriage number three told the outlet that he’s a happily married man — no more multiple girlfriends at once. “All our friends think it’s made in heaven.”

“It’s only people who don’t know us, who simply see us as stereotypes in terms of age and beauty.”

Hefner, who was married to Mildred Williams from 1949 to 1959, and to Kimberley Conrad from 1989 to 2010, said that it was worth the wait...

For the record, Crystal Harris is 26 and Hugh is 86.

- Hugh Hefner has slept with over 1,000 women (Surprise?), claims he’s happily married, Canada.com, March 26, 2013.

2. In addition, new sidewalks will be built on the north side of Ulmerton Road and along the south side of the road between 38th and 34th streets as well as between Egret Boulevard and Mercury Insurance.

The median opening at 35th Street will be closed and median openings at the east end of the project will be changed to directional openings as work progresses. Much of the construction work and lane closures will take place at night, but per usual, motorists should be prepared for detours and traffic delays. This one's going to require patience. The $20 million project that began in April is expected to wrap up in spring of 2016.

The intersection at Harn Boulevard and U.S. 19 in Clearwater is currently open for use in all directions. Is there a projected date for it to be closed for U-turns and cross traffic?

The state Department of Transportation doesn’t have an exact date at this point buta spokesperson gave a ballpark estimate of sometime in the fall of 2014.

- Work at Roosevelt and Ulmerton part of road widening, TampaBay.com, April 19, 2013.

3. Tess Holliday became the world’s first US size 22/ UK size 26 to be signed to a mainstream modelling agency and to lead brand clothing campaigns. She is one of a number of plus-size models — including Crystal Renn and Jennie Runk — who have made headlines by defying the super-skinny look, since Emme first made plus-size modelling a “thing” back in the 1990s.

But an industry insider tells us that she is just a “spectacle” that will fall out of fashion as quickly as most seasonal trends.

…

However, Claire who has worked as a scout and booking agent for the plus-size modelling world in one of the world’s most famous agencies for five years, told Business Insider what the shelf-life is truly like for larger models, how much they earn, and what the greatest misconceptions are about plus-size modelling.

BUSINESS INSIDER: So how much do plus-size models get paid on average?

CLAIRE: Catalogue work is the big money-earner, especially in Germany. Simply Be, for example, used to pay ￡1,800 ($2,771) a day for girls they loved.

That dropped after the crash,but ball park ￡1,200-1,500 ($1,847-2,309) per day for the popular girlsthey used regularly. There would also be travel costs on top of that, plus if there was shooting abroad, there would be a half day rate applied per travel day.

For a magazine editorial shoot, it would be around ￡250 ($385) a day. For a catwalk show, maybe ￡150 ($231). A lingerie shoot for a day for a brand could be ￡400-600 ($616-924).

- This is the reality of working as a plus-size model and what you'd earn, BusinessInsider.com.au, May 27, 2015.

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About the author:

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He 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.

（作者張欣 中國日報網英語點津 編輯：陳丹妮）