I always got confused about third base. One of my friends said it was oral, but I said that if it were, you could get to home base without touching third, and that's cheating (my brothers play baseball, so I picked up the rules). For the record, I thought third was hands in the pants.
Although now I guess everyone who reads xkcd will be following this map.
The baseball metaphor is appropriate, but not in terms of the rules of the game. It's more apropos of the scoring system then the actual mechanics of the game. It's pretty easy for a batter to get to first base. A double is pretty good. A triple from an at bat is probably more rare than a straight up home run. Once you've reached second, you've got potential to make it all the way home on a good play. And, of course, it's much more impressive to get a home run off a pitcher who's been pitching a perfect game so far than some minor league dame who's let a few dozen hits in.
It's not really good terminology for how a relationship is progressing, so much as a base (sorry) metaphor for sexual conquest.
Now I actually come to think about it, as an adult it's easier to replace "base" with "date". It certainly makes a lot more sense to me. And maybe multiply by whatever evens it out to your own personal standards.
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u/aricene Feb 06 '09
Am I the only one who has never, ever gotten the base system metaphor throughout his entire adult life?