Reader question:

In this sentence – The winners in business have always played hardball – what does hardball mean exactly?

My comments:

Playing hardball means to be aggressive and ruthless, going straight for the opponent’s jugular and sometimes disregarding rules and etiquette.

The term “play hardball” comes from the game of baseball. Women play a similar game, but it’s called softball because the ball is slightly larger (making it easier to make a hit) and softer (safer to play with) than the regular ball used in the men’s game. Choosing to play “hardball” hence suggests you are tough and aggressive. YourDictionary.com says this usage (to describe aggressive behavior) began in the late 1970s.

Take negotiations, for example, which are about making compromises. If one negotiator opts for hardball tactics, however, you may infer that they probably won’t be making any concessions. On the contrary, they will probably make unreasonable demands. They’ll raise their voice rather than speak with a conciliatory tone. In other words, they might shout rather than whisper.

In short, people who decide to play hardball are hell bent on winning, ready to achieve their goal by any means possible – by fair means or foul.

Here are real examples of hardball players from recent media:

1. It was the dawn of the Reagan Revolution, and the Republicans had just retaken the Senate - not an easy time to be the torchbearer for liberalism. But Kennedy assumed the role gladly. He became not only a dogged defender of the faith but also an even more adept player of the congressional game. In the ‘80s, he teamed repeatedly with the unlikeliest of allies, conservative Utah Republican Orrin Hatch. It was Hatch and Kennedy who got the first major AIDS legislation passed in 1988, a $1 billion spending measure for treatment, education and research. Two years later, they pushed through the Ryan White CARE Act to assist people with HIV who lack sufficient health-care coverage. But if Kennedy knew how to play ball with the other side, he also knew how to play hardball. When Reagan tried to put Robert Bork on the Supreme Court, it was Kennedy who led the ferocious and ultimately successful liberal opposition.

- The Death of Ted Kennedy: The Brother Who Mattered Most, Time Magazine, August 26, 2009.

2. You would need to be Panglossian optimist to see progress here. Mr Obama baldly told the Israeli premier, Binyamin Netanyahu, that if he was unprepared to give ground on small demands, such as a freeze in settlement construction, he would have to face bigger ones, such as final-status issues: borders, Jerusalem and the return of refugees.

The Likud leader wants to engage in these talks even less than he wants to consider a settlement freeze, and on that issue Mr Obama is not budging. He stated that the UN refused to accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements. So Mr Obama is playing hardball.

- ‘A new era of engagement’, Guardian.co.uk, September 23, 2009.

3. McNamara said it’s time for Obama to play hardball with NATO members.

“The one thing we have to be excited about is he has credibility. He needs to start leveraging it,” she said, adding that Obama should start making phone calls to European leaders and use his ambassadors to mount pressure.

“I hope NATO comes out of this with a more realistic attitude about what it should do,” she said. “I hope Obama is putting his credibility and legitimacy behind his asking for more resources. He can’t be afraid to ask.”

- NATO Sits on Sidelines While U.S. Mulls Mission in Afghanistan, FoxNews.com, September 22, 2009.

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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.

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