Indochinese soldiers playing chuck-a-luck in France shortly after the World War I armistice. A crowd of Asian men in uniform gathered round a blanket on which are bets and a cup and saucer, presumably holding dice.
23 June 2021
The old army game is a phrase that has gone through a number of different meanings over the years. It started out as a name for a gambling game—exactly which one varies with the telling—shifted to refer to a sucker’s game—like three-card-monte—and then came to mean any kind of confidence game or deception. Meanwhile, in baseball it developed three distinct and contradictory senses.
The earliest use I have found of army game is as another name for the game commonly called chuck-a-luck. It apparently got that name because of chuck-a-luck’s popularity among soldiers during the 1861–65 U.S. Civil War. The particular use, however, is from a chapter subtitle in William Rideing’s 1879 travelogue, A-Saddle in the Wild West, and the army game is great, not old:
The Great Army Game of “Chuck-a-Luck”
For those unfamiliar with the game, John Philip Quinn’s 1890 book on gambling, Fools of Fortune, gives a description of chuck-a-luck and explains that while the game can be played on the level, a skilled player can easily rig it to take money from the unsuspecting:
CHUCK-A-LUCK
This is a simple little game of dice, yet one of the most fascinating of all games of chance. It is sometimes designated as “the old army “game,” [sic] for the reason that soldiers at the front were often wont to beguile the tedium of a bivouac by seeking relief from monotony in its charms.
The outfit requisite to play the game is simple and inexpensive, consisting of three small dice, a dice-box, and a cloth on which are inscribed the numbers one to six, corresponding to the dots, or "pips," on the six faces of the cubes. Bets are made by placing the money wagered on the numbers on the cloth. The dice, having been placed in the box, are shaken and thrown upon the table. Bets made upon either of the three numbers which come uppermost are won by the players. Money staked on either of the remaining numbers are won by the bank.
On its face, this game appears to be one of pure chance. As played upon fair and circus-grounds, however, there is very little chance about it. The “banker” does not throw the dice fairly. Through long practice, he is able to retain two of them between the fingers of the hand which he holds over the inverted dice-box. The other die he allows to remain in the box, and rattles it against the sides, occasionally knocking the box itself against the button of his coat in order to simulate the sound produced by the shaking of three dice. When he removes his hand from the mouth of the dice cup, he drops upon the table the two dice which he held in his hand and permits the third die to fall by chance. The reader will perceive, that he thus makes himself absolutely certain as to two of the faces which will be exposed when the cup is lifted. When it is remembered, that the box is not agitated until all the bets have been made, it will be readily perceived how great is the unfair advantage thus obtained
Other early appearances of old army game use it to describe other or unspecified games of chance. From the Augusta, Georgia Daily Chronicle & Constitutionalist of 23 February 1882:
A large number of gentlemen were at the Fair Grounds yesterday.
“The old army game”—three win and three lose—was popular.
And there is this account from the Cleveland Plain Dealer of 15 May 1887 which is vague on exactly what the game was:
A faro bank was seldom lacking in one of these places, but was never extensively patronized, probably because it was the “squarest” game of them all.
Then there was what they called “the old army game,” of which I remember very little except that those who played always lost.
And there is this from the Omaha Daily World-Herald of 11 August 1890:
Every skin game known to the world was run openly and above board. Under every good shade tree a roulette outfit, chuckaluck, three-card monte, the old army game, faro and numerous other gambling devices were in full operation. The shekels rolled in profusely. Suckers appeared at every turn.
And given this association with rigged games of chance, it should be no surprise that old army game generalized to refer to any deception or confidence game. There is this article from the 24 May 1910 Jersey Journal that uses old army game to refer to what can only be described as a predecessor to the “Nigerian prince” email scam so familiar to us today. Hollywood likes to portray con men as imaginative and brilliant, but in reality, they aren’t; they use the same old tricks their great-grandfathers did:
“THE OLD ARMY GAME”
A letter believed to have been sent in the interests of an old confidence game was received by C. Caborrelli, of 3863[?] Hudson Boulevard, yesterday. The epistle is written in Spanish and bears a Madrid postmark. The is no signature to it beyond the initial, “D. Del O.” The writer is, according to the letter, confined in a Spanish prison for debt. He asks that Caborelli help him by getting his trunk out of the hands of railway authorities who are holding it at a station in France. The writer says there are 1,300,000 francs in the trunk which he will gladly give to Caborrelli for releasing the attachment on the trunk and other baggage. In conclusion the writer asks that a reply be sent to his valet, Sabastian Romero, in Madrid. The letter was turned over to the police of the Sixth Precinct, and later to Police Headquarters.
But we also see the old army game used in baseball, and in ways that are difficult to reconcile with both the gambling senses and with each other. At first, the phrase in baseball parlance referred to a style or tactic of defensive play, perhaps one involving some kind of deception, but exactly what is unclear. Here is an early use from the 6 September 1903 issue of the Pittsburg [sic] Press about a game between the Pirates and the Cincinnati Reds, in which Pittsburgh’s hitting dominated the game:
The Reds tried to work the old army game in the fourth inning, but Sebring lined one out between Beckley and Daly, and Bransfield tallied.
And there is this decades-later description of a local baseball game in the Miami Herald of 5 May 1930:
Davis led off with a hit to left and Vegue laid down a bunt. Marks threw to second, but Davis beat the throw to the bag and two men were on with none down. Then Gahan pulled the old army game on Vegue and tagged him out at first.
The second baseball sense is that of an aggressive style of play, involving bunts, base stealing, hit-and-run plays, and the like. While one might compare this style of play with the patter and movements of a three-card-monte dealer or shell-game operator, there is nothing illegal or illicit about this style of play. Here is an example of an unsuccessful attempt to work the offensive old army game from the Indianapolis Star of 10 June 1909:
The Brewers tried bravely to work the old army game, but it didn’t get them anything when Hostetter singled and Collins sacrificed in the fifth and Barry and Randall repeated the operation in the sixth and Hostetter and Collins came back with the same old stunt in the seventh.
But old army game could also mean exactly the opposite, a strategy that relies on slugging and long balls. From the Cleveland Plain Dealer of 3 May 1908:
The “old army game” as we call it, the style adopted by a team of sluggers that go up to the bat relying upon their batting strength to win out, will never win a pennant nowadays.
So, in the case of baseball, the old army game is what we call a Janus phrase, one that has meanings that are diametrically opposed to one another.
Sources:
“Baseball Notes.” Pittsburg [sic] Press (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 6 September 1903, 20. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
“Brevities.” Daily Chronicle & Constitutionalist (Augusta, Georgia), 23 February 1882, 4. Readex: America’s Historical Newspapers.
Copeland, H.G. “Champs Crawl Up on Losing Brewers.” Indianapolis Star, 10 June 1909, 8. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
Dickson, Paul. The Dickson Baseball Dictionary, third edition. Skip McAfee, ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2009, 594, s.v. old army game.
Green’s Dictionary of Slang, 2021, s.v. army, n.2.
Lighter, J.E., ed. Random House Dictionary of Historical Slang: A–G, vol. 1 of 2. New York: Random House, 1994, 35, s.v. army game, n.
“No Post-Mortems in Buses for Manager Hughey Jennings.” Cleveland Plain Dealer (Ohio), 3 May 1908, 2–C. Readex: America’s Historical Newspapers.
“The Old Army Game.” The Jersey Journal (Jersey City, New Jersey), 24 May 1910, 1. Readex: America’s Historical Newspapers.
“Pressmen at Their Picnic.” Omaha Daily World-Herald (Nebraska), 11 August 1890, 2. Readex: America’s Historical Newspapers.
Quinn, John Philip. Fools of Fortune: Or Gambling and Gamblers. Chicago: G.L. Howe, 1890, 275–76. HathiTrust Digital Archive.
Rideing, William H. A-Saddle in the Wild West. New York: D. Appleton, 1879, 139. HathiTrust Digital Archive.
“Shoe Store Defeats Turner’s in Twelfth.” Miami Herald (Florida), 5 May 1930, 7. Readex: America’s Historical Newspapers.
“A Tramp Trip Across the Lava Beds of Idaho and Back Again.” Cleveland Plain Dealer (Ohio), 15 May 1887, 11. Readex: America’s Historical Newspapers.
Photo credit: Frank Chircosta, 21 November 1918, Nievre, France. U.S. Army Signal Corps photo. U.S. National Archives. Public domain image.