"Laying some wood"

[catnip]

Sportwriter John Wertheim quotes tennis coach/commentator Brad Gilbert:

 

Addressing the exceptionally slow Rebound Ace this year, Brad Gilbert noted: "The guys should just be happy Rafael Nadal is injured -- I can only imagine what he would do if he was here. His ball would be jumping and exploding, he would be laying some wood to some boys."

 

The expression sounds like a jock-y way of saying he's F**king them over, but is that what it really means? I googled the term and it's used a fair amount to describe playing a sport very well.

 

Anyone know where this expression comes from?

 

Thank you,

[buckyball]

He also made what I am assuming to be a Brokeback reference. He pick french teenager Gael Monfils to reach the semi-finals of the aussie open. When readers ripped him on it he replied:

 

"What can I say? Gael Monfils, I wish I knew how to quit you!"

[catnip]

OK, I found this on some message board after googling around:

 

<<<“Laying wood to” comes from the older and happier days of baseball when bats were wooden. After a good solid hit, the batter was said to “have really put the wood to the ball.” The extension that someone was “laying wood to” someone else means that the person laying really smacked the other good and solid at least metaphorically.

 

The sex puns on wood such as “getting wood” are separate and only use the wood metaphor to indicate woodlikeness.

 

I can’t or perhaps won’t imagine both meanings being used in the same sentence>>>

 

 

Well, I CAN and WILL imagine - the possibilities for double entendre are obvious and fun.