"1. A player's position on a team. 1ST USE. 1908 (Baseball Magazine, September; Edward J. Nichols). 2. A team's position in the standings. '[The Orioles] may not even be that far from competing for a wild-card berth' (Peter Schmuck, The Baltimore Sun, July 26, 2006). 1ST USE. 1910 (Baseball Magazine, May; Edward J. Nichols). USAGE NOTE.Peter Morris suggests that the term originally designated a position in the standings in either the first division or the second division; e.g., 'The White Sox ... finished in the first division when they generally had been picked for a lower berth' (Chicago Tribune, Apr. 6, 1913) and 'There did not appear to be a chance for anything but a season opened' (Chandler Richter, The Sporting Life, Sept. 4, 1915). This meaning was derived from the various classes of tickets for travelers on ships and trains; it has particular pertinence to baseball in that veteran players usually obtained lower berths in the sleeping cars their trains."
Paul Dickson, The Dickson Baseball Dictionary
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