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A wild and desperate attempt to make a play. Sometimes the term carries a hint of showboating. Babe Ruth (_Babe Ruth's Own Book of Baseball_, 1928) defined "giving it the old college try" as "playing to the grandstand or making strenuous effort to field a ball that obviously cannot be handled." The term was quickly applied to any effort with limited chances of success. From _The New Dickson Baseball Dictionary_ (1999) by Paul Dickson. http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/13/messages/1162.html
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