In
baseball, "bloop" is a term used to describe a softly hit ball lofted just over the heads of the
infield and dying on the
outfield grass. The word can be used as either an
adjective ("bloop single", "bloop double", etc.) or as a
transitive verb, as in "Guerrero blooped a double down the
right field line," or "Jones swings and bloops it into
center field." In the noun form, such a
hit is usually called a "
blooper" or a "
little looper". Another name occasionally used is "
flare".
Sometimes the bloop hit is confused with the "Texas leaguer" but the Texas leaguer is actually quite different, being a much higher pop-up type hit with a much steeper trajectory, that finds the seam in the exact midpoint between the full-speed running ranges of the outfielders and infielders, but would otherwise be a catchable ball. Nobody has a chance to catch a true bloop hit.
Most bloop hits are quickly recovered singles that only advance baserunners one base, but occasionally, an aggressive runner will leg one into a double, especially if the ball is hit up the line and skitters into foul ground, where only one player has any chance of retrieving it.
"Bloop" is a relative latecomer to the baseball vernacular - the earliest known printed usage of the term in reference to a baseball hit occurred in 1947, although the term had been used in radio broadcasts for some years prior.