play ball

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play ball (third-person singular simple present plays ball, present participle playing ball, simple past and past participle played ball)

1. (idiomatic) To start anything tumultuous.
2. (idiomatic) To work together; to cooperate.

   The politicians refused to play ball with the journalists.

   • 2019 January 9, Drachinifel, The Channel Dash / Operation Cerberus - How to win through refuge in audacity‎, archived from the original on 24 July 2022, 15:17 from the start:

     The Luftwaffe, at this point, was still refusing to play ball completely, however. But someone decided to lump Adolf Galland with command of the air operation, and he decided to work with Luftflotte 3, mobilizing their training units to make up the numbers, since large numbers of that particular formation's fighters had been diverted to the campaign in Russia, which was why the fighter numbers were so much lower than they had been the previous year.

3. (baseball, softball) An expression used at the beginning of a game of baseball or softball.