No rain stops play in baseball 'showers'  The Monitor's language
columnist is batting a thousand on her baseball terminology.   A
new lexicon is a reminder of how America's national pastime has
enriched its national language.  Vaudeville performer and
songwriter Jack Norworth scratched out the lyrics of "Take Me
Out to the Ball Game" on a 25-minute subway ride in New York in
1908. He was inspired by an ad he glimpsed at a station stop:
"Base Ball Today – Polo Grounds." That was all it took. He wrote
a couple of verses and a chorus "as easily as one might take
dictation," baseball scholar Paul Dickson writes. Norworth's
collaborator, Albert Von Tilzer, composed the music. Their song
was a big hit, and, a century later, it's still going strong as
the unofficial anthem of the national pastime.  This is one of
the tidbits from the newly arrived edition of "The Dickson
Baseball Dictionary, Third Edition." It's one serious tome. It's
nearly as hefty as another desktop stalwart, my "regular"
dictionary. Well, OK, it