inside baseball

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adjective

: known or understood only by a small group of people : esoteric

"Nick, even I don't understand those clues," Go said. "They're all inside baseball between you and Amy … "

—Gillian Flynn

It might be a bit inside baseball to some, but I love it when crossword constructors poke fun at puzzle-making conventions.

—Deb Amien

We have, however, tried to shy away from the super-scientific words—they're just too inside baseball unless you're an actual distiller.

—Zach Johnston

This is very inside baseball, but the House Rules Committee meets today to consider a series of rule changes for the 2021 and 2022 legislative sessions.

—Dan McGowan

Earnings reports are always a bit dry and inside baseball for the casual entertainment industry observer.

—Brandon Katz

inside baseball

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noun

: something known or understood only by a small group of people

If the ethics issues amount to inside baseball for many voters, Mr. Carter is betting that the issue of underfunded schools will strike a more universal chord.

—Richard Fausset

It would be easy to regard the fate of legislative history in the Roberts court as so much inside baseball, of interest only to fanatical Supreme Court groupies.

—Linda Greenhouse

It's not that a person outside that audience can't watch and, in broad strokes, understand the story of Mank. It's that to an extent, the film feels like inside baseball.

—Alissa Wilkinson

Examples of inside baseball in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Adjective

While that may be inside baseball, any edge in the ultra-competitive OLED market is worth noting, as the best TVs continually get better and the race gets tighter. —Ryan Waniata, WIRED, 20 Mar. 2024

Ranking universities might seem like intellectual inside baseball, an academic game of interest only to professors and to prospective students. —Peter Campbell, Foreign Affairs, 15 Sep. 2013

Organizational changes often seem like inside baseball: Citi for example is swapping two main divisions for five business lines. —Bychristiaan Hetzner, Fortune, 14 Sep. 2023

The answer is a little inside baseball. —Natalie B. Compton, Anchorage Daily News, 27 Apr. 2023

Noun

A little bit of inside baseball and a little bit of she had moved on. —Scott Feinberg, The Hollywood Reporter, 13 Mar. 2023

Frankly, what inside baseball there is on hand seems pale by comparison as well. —Laura Jedeed, The New Republic, 4 Mar. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

Adjective

1924, in the meaning defined above

Noun

1968, in the meaning defined above