Talk:Ball boy

Untitled

Ballkid? Is that a real term that is actual use? Isnt the more common term ballboy/ballgirl? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.199.84.140 (talk) 17:18, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

No - not a term I have ever heard before, unless it is US usage. It is certainly not used in Britain and most definitely not at Wimbledon.

Requested move

The following discussion is an archived discussion of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the proposal was Moved to Ball boy. Strong evidence that "boy" is common-use term (overwhelming vs any gender-neutral form) as well as the formal term used by several major sports organizations. Space-separated also wins by authoritative source. DMacks (talk) 06:57, 11 July 2009 (UTC)

Ballkid → Ball boy — I'm all for gender neutrality, but in this case the word "ballkid" is so very rarely used, and even if it were "ball kid" (with a space) would seem more correct gramatically. I'll suggest "ball boy" at the moment, simply as across all sports there appear to be more ball boys than ball girls. Note, I would propose moving the current "Ballboy" page to "Ball boy (disambiguation)" (done). Aubergine (talk) 21:00, 3 July 2009 (UTC)

Extended reasoning:

In case people are interested in Google hits, the details are as follows:

• "Ball boy" (but not "ballboy") 1,980,000
• "Ballboy" (but not "ball boy") 1,590,000

• "Ball girl" (but not "ballgirl") 1,140,000
• "Ballgirl" (but not "ball girl") 375,000

• "Ball kid" (but not "ballkid") 279,000
• "Ball person" (but not "ballperson") 148,000
• "Ballperson" (but not "ball person") 125,000
• "Ballkid" (but not "ball kid") 89,000

The exact number of hits isn't static and will depend when and from where you search from, but the orders of magnitude should stay approximately the same. "Ballboy" (with no space) is probably elevated due to the band of the same name.

As for dictionaries, Merriam–Webster (US English) lists:

Entry: ball boy

Function: noun

Date: 1903

Definition: a male attendant who retrieves balls for players or officials (as in a tennis match or a baseball or basketball game)

Entry: ball girl

Function: noun

Date: 1926

Definition: a female attendant who retrieves balls for players or officials (as in a tennis match or a baseball or basketball game)

Using the online version, "ballboy" and "ballgirl" list the two above as suggestions. "Ball kid" and "ballkid" are not present. I don't have access to OED so I can't comment on British English or other national variations. Aubergine (talk) 19:43, 3 July 2009 (UTC)

• Oppose. If anything, Ball person is a better title. If this was changed to ball boy, it would only cause non-stop posts about sexism etc. There is nothing technical to gain from the move either. MickMacNee (talk) 19:56, 3 July 2009 (UTC)
  • Except I can't even find ball kid/ballkid/ball person/ballperson in any dictionary. Isn't there a guideline somewhere about not artificially constructing gender-neutral terms? Aubergine (talk) 20:03, 3 July 2009 (UTC)
    • It is hardly a made up term. MickMacNee (talk) 20:21, 3 July 2009 (UTC)
• Support. Based on usage. But the bold text in the lead should read "ball boy or ball girl." Hippo (talk) 20:46, 3 July 2009 (UTC)
• Support: common usage. Ball kid and ball person may not be neologisms, quite, but they are little used in comparison. Jonathunder (talk) 22:15, 3 July 2009 (UTC)
• Strong support: Watched Wimbledon and never heard ballkid. Wikipedia has the article batboy so no reason why it cannot have ball boy. Bouncing Kangeroo (talk) 22:16, 4 July 2009 (UTC)
  • I know squat about baseball, and the article is no help. Are there actually any batgirls? I can't believe I'm asking this question to be honest. MickMacNee (talk) 23:25, 4 July 2009 (UTC)
    • Yes. Also, they are more common in softball than batboys. Bouncing Kangeroo (talk) 23:53, 4 July 2009 (UTC)
      • As an aside, someone should update the batboy article to mention softball. I'll do so if I have time. Hippo (talk) 23:26, 5 July 2009 (UTC)
• Support: Agree with other comments in support. If I may add 'ball kids' just sounds crass. Maybe it could be "ball children" if it can't be "ballboy" (example of this usage here). Hakluyt bean (talk) 19:41, 5 July 2009 (UTC)
  • I think "ball children" is probably used less than even "ball kid", though I agree that "ball kid" doesn't sound right. The key point is that the most common terms are "ball boy" and "ball girl" and unfortunately we can't use both in the title. Aubergine (talk) 23:11, 5 July 2009 (UTC)

• Strong oppose Yes, of course there are ball-girls. See an article here about one very prominant one. Using just ball-boy, despite being more common, goes against the Wikipedia convention that we should be precise when necessary, and avoid a formulation that could be viewed as sexist. Suggest "Ball-boys and ball-girls" (without or without dash and plural) as an alternative name. YeshuaDavid • Talk • 19:44, 5 July 2009 (UTC)
  • No one is denying that there are ball girls. There are several other Wikipedia conventions that would favor using the commonly used name. It's why have an article chairman and not chair or chairperson. Choosing the term for one gender isn't automatically sexist. Aubergine (talk) 23:05, 5 July 2009 (UTC)
    • Aubergine/YeshuaDavid, in my mind, this RM should not be (or made to be) about gender, but about usage. Just make sure the lead is written as I suggested above. As Bouncing Kangeroo says, there's batboy not batkid. Hippo (talk) 23:25, 5 July 2009 (UTC)
      • I'm not saying it's sexist per se, but I don't see the point from moving from a (possibly somewhat obscure) gender-neutral term to a contentious alternative, even if it is more common. I think "ball boy and ball girl" should be considered as an alternative move instead, since it is common in usage and is inclusive. YeshuaDavid • Talk • 23:46, 5 July 2009 (UTC)
        • I'm fairly certain that using "and" in that way isn't acceptable, or at least I can't think of another circumstance where it has been used. That ballkid is somewhat obscure is why it isn't the best name for the page. If I recall correctly, the informal test is "what would the average person type into the search box?" Hippo (talk) 01:30, 6 July 2009 (UTC)
        • The above is a genuine reason for moving the article from 'ballkid', whereas the percieved sexism of 'ball boy' is purely hypothetical. You can't oppose it on the grounds that someone might or could find it sexist, only if someone does. Do they? --78.146.239.141 (talk) 12:37, 6 July 2009 (UTC)
          • I can't find any documented evidence that "ball boy" is considered sexist, which is perhaps why there isn't wide usage of a gender-neutral term. Hippo (talk) 17:40, 6 July 2009 (UTC)
            • Moving just seems a regressive thing to do. I've had a quick online, and apart from one forum I can't see any descriptions of the term "ballboy" as sexist. But calling this article "ball boy" and starting the intro with "ball boy or ball girl..." seems prettty exclusivist, even if "ballkid" is a rather naff and unused term. YeshuaDavid • Talk • 19:17, 6 July 2009 (UTC)
              • A gender-neutral alternative would be preferable but we don't have one because no-one uses them. This is precisely why we can't name the article 'ballkid': someone has just made it up. If we name the article 'ball boy' or 'ball girl', I doubt anyone would really care in the great scheme of things. Just not 'ballkid'. This term doesn't really exist. --78.146.239.141 (talk) 23:08, 6 July 2009 (UTC)
              • Indeed, the Wimbledon site states it only introduced ball girls as late as 1977. Ball boys probably existed a fair time before ball girls, which lends support to the idea of the original definitive term being 'ball boy'. --78.146.239.141 (talk) 23:12, 6 July 2009 (UTC)
• Strong Support. The two terms in common useage appear to be "ball boy" and "ball girl" and I've never heard a term that covers both of them, certainly not "ballkid". From memory the BBC at Wimbledon refers to them as "ball boys and girls". Therefore I think the only viable options are "ball boy" or "ball girl" either of which may cause problems because of choosing a sex, however as they are the only two terms in common use we have to choose one. The chairman article seems a good precedent that we will use a so called 'sexist' term when common usage does. Given that ball boys (and so the term) have been around long and that I'm fairly sure I've heard "ball boys" used to refer to both sexes I think we have to go with "ball boys". Dpmuk (talk) 13:10, 7 July 2009 (UTC)

• Find out what the official job title is and use that. You can't really get fairer than this. While the most-common-term principle may be one of the rules on Wikipedia, surely it doesn't override all other considerations. Besides, NPOV is another Wikipedia policy. -- Smjg (talk) 19:47, 7 July 2009 (UTC)
  • Wimbledon at least appears to use ball boys and ball girls but using 'ball boys and ball girls' (interestingly the file name is simply ballboy) isn't very encylopedic and contrary to normal wikipedia practice. The problem is then what to use instead. Ball boy (or indeed ball girl) could be considered sexist (a view that I personally disagree with) while ballkid or similar is not in common usage. Dpmuk (talk) 21:50, 7 July 2009 (UTC)
  • Maybe I've missed something, but I can't see where NPOV would be problem. Not too sure what you mean by "official job title" either. The Australian Open seems to use "ball boy" to collectively refer to both sexes on this page. The French-language collective term is ramasseurs de balles which is masculine (ramasseuse de balles would be a ball girl IIRC). The US Open does not seem have a consistent terminology, using a combination of "ball boy", "ball girl", and less commonly "ball person". Hippo (talk) 23:04, 7 July 2009 (UTC)
• Comment Some article views stats for all the articles that redirect here (from [1]) taken from June:

Ball boy: 387

Ballboy: 881

Ball boys: 4

Ballboys: n/a (Page doesn't exist)

Ball girl: 2

Ballgirl: 174

Ball girls: 0

Ballgirls: 169

Ball person: 0

Ballperson: 0

Ball kid: 1

Ball kids: 0

Ballkids: 10

Ball kid has had a total of 2489 and even just removing those that are from the above redirects (I assume a redirect is effectively counted twice, once for the redirect page once for the page redirected to) reduces this to 861 so a total of 872 for all variations on ballkid and that's with internal links which you'd expect there to be more of than for any other of the above articles as these would be double redirects and eventually changed . This compares to 1398 for all variations of ball boy, 345 for all variations of ballgirl and none for all variations of ballperson. This to me shows strong support for ballboy being the most common search term and taken with the above arguements about usage elsewhere reinforces my believe that the article should be at Ballboy. Dpmuk (talk) 22:21, 8 July 2009 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

Ho Hum, I just came to the page to see the state of play of any ball kid discussion. All the same I did a little research in google searches for the last year.

• "ball kid" 20,800 results, "ball kids" 27,000 results
• "ball boy" 101,000 results, "ball boys" 30,200 results
• "ball girl" 37,200 results , "ball girls" 34,900 results
  

I've heard the term used at Wimbledon and can't remember "boy boy" and "ball girl". I wasn't giving a huge amount of attention but am wondering if another move proposal might be in order. Gregkaye (talk) 12:14, 29 June 2014 (UTC)

Original research tag

The article is headed with the OR banner and has been since 2009. It's not specified on this talk page or the article which specific statements are objected to. Personally, I'm conformable with the article as it stands - if no-one objects I'll take down the tag in a few days. LukeSurl ^{t c} 17:06, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

New request for move

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: not moved. (non-admin closure) -- Calidum 06:03, 13 December 2014 (UTC)

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Ball boy → Ball person – "Ball person" better reflects the content of the article and avoids policy violations (more explanations given below) 2A02:2F0A:506F:FFFF:0:0:BC1A:5AEF (talk) 09:57, 5 December 2014 (UTC)

Move to ball person. I know there was a previous RfC on this, as seen above, but that was more than 5 years ago, and consensus can change.

For uses of ball person see this: [2]

Use of "ball boy" in the title violates many policies, including WP:NPOV. It does not accuratly reflect the content of the article: the first message that a reader may get when seeing this article is that this is a job only for boys, or that girls are a rare exception in this job.2A02:2F0A:506F:FFFF:0:0:BC1A:5AEF (talk) 09:30, 5 December 2014 (UTC)

• Alternative suggestion - move to Ball boys and ball girls. "Ball person" is not a term in common use, and I would prefer the article to remain at "Ball boy" rather than move it to this title. I disagree that the article advances a point of view and for a reader to get the impression the IP implies, they would have to stop reading the article before the third word or the first picture. --LukeSurl ^{t c} 15:59, 5 December 2014 (UTC)
  • If this approach is taken, it would better as Ball boy and ball girl per WP:SINGULAR. DMacks (talk) 05:51, 6 December 2014 (UTC)
• Oppose agree with Luke that this article doesn't advance a point of view. "Ball boy" is the common name by far. Furthermore, the title policy says "do not use extremely uncommon names as a means of compromising". Stickee (talk) 00:31, 6 December 2014 (UTC)
• Oppose. "Ball person" is not the common name for this office. Moreover, "Ball boy" probably is. Certainly the terms "ball boy" and "ball girl" combined represent the terminology used nearly all of the time. If there's support for moving this article to a gender-inclusive title, it should be something actually in common use. 209.211.131.181 (talk) 03:16, 6 December 2014 (UTC)
• Oppose It's one thing if a potentially gender neutral term is commonly in use (Firefighter, Bellhop) but that does not appear to be the case here.--69.157.253.160 (talk) 04:15, 6 December 2014 (UTC)
• Support as per WP:AT, "The title indicates what the article is about.." I think it would be a positive thing if we recognised that some of these "boys" are girls. As per BBC and as per Wikipedia being no place for Gender discrimination. I have frequently heard the term used at Wimbledon almost as an official term where "ball boy" seemed to colloquial. Gregkaye ✍♪ 05:04, 6 December 2014 (UTC)
  • Googling for "ball person" site:www.wimbledon.com just gave me zero hits. Without the quotes, I got 171 hits, including current and reliable-sounding materials such as [3] that use various forms with both "boy" and "girl" together explicitly and never with a gender-neutral form. DMacks (talk) 05:58, 6 December 2014 (UTC)
• Comment If you are opposed to moving the article to "Ball person" could you give your opinion on whether you agree with a title like "Ball boys and ball girls" or "Ball boy and ball girl" (or something similar) as was suggested above? 2A02:2F0A:507F:FFFF:0:0:BC1A:C19B (talk) 09:48, 6 December 2014 (UTC)
  • As something similar, Suggest Ball boys and girls and yes I know these are plurals. As mentioned Wikipedia being no place for Gender discrimination. The earlier link attests to this use. See also: "Ball boys and girls" OR "Ball boys and ball girls". gregkaye ✍♪ 00:03, 10 December 2014 (UTC)
• Oppose. We say "ball boy" or "ball girl", but we do not say "ball person". -- Necrothesp (talk) 14:37, 10 December 2014 (UTC)
• Oppose "ball person" as an uncommon term. As a suggestion for making the title gender neutral, I would suggest Ball boy or girl, with both ball boy and ball girl redirecting to that. Egsan Bacon (talk) 20:35, 10 December 2014 (UTC)

• Oppose the proposal and oppose the other suggested combinations of "ball boy(s) and/or (ball) girl(s)". Keep it simple and let the redirects take care of the rest. —  AjaxSmack  01:44, 11 December 2014 (UTC)

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The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Assessment comment

The comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:Ball boy/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.

"Ball person" is term used by the United States Tennis Association who is only organization I know of published training manual, "Ball persons: A Training Manual" by Barbara Hultgren and Larry Parker, illustrations by Albert S. Rendes in 1999. Can be found on USTA website under references. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.111.198.225 (talk) 02:58, 5 March 2009

Last edited at 20:27, 24 February 2015 (UTC). Substituted at 08:53, 29 April 2016 (UTC)