grandstand play

grandstand play

1. In sports, any excessively showy action or maneuver during play done primarily to impress or entertain the spectators. Originally specific to baseball, it has since been extended to any sport. Rather than shoot the ball and secure an easy two points for the team, she instead attempted to slam dunk the ball as a grandstand play for the crowd.
2. By extension, any excessively dramatic, showy, or ostentatious action, behavior, or maneuver. Our manager is more concerned with making a grandstand play for the CEO than effectively running the office. The dictator's constant threats of war are more of a grandstand play than a legitimate concern to the rest of the world.
See also: grandstand, play
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

grandstand play

n. something done exceedingly well to impress an audience or a group of spectators. The grandstand play caught the attention of the crowd just as they were leaving.
See also: grandstand, play
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions

grandstand play

An ostentatious action; behavior designed to attract maximum attention. The term comes from nineteenth-century American baseball, where certain players deliberately sought the attention and favor of the spectators in the grandstands. It appeared in one of W. K. Post’s Harvard Stories of 1893: “They all hold on to something. . . . To faint or fall over would be a grand-stand play.”
See also: grandstand, play
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
See also:
  • grandstand
  • grandstand play, make a
  • make a grandstand play
  • (all) done up like a pox doctor's clerk
  • clerk
  • doctor
  • (all) dressed up like a pox doctor's clerk
  • hot dog
  • Hot dog!
  • hotdog
References in periodicals archive
Thinking rollback isn't crazy, but it requires a sustained effort, not a grandstand play.
Does the pathway to containing Iran pass through Moscow?
Even now, Putin could help by coordinating his actions with the West, but he seems entranced by the lure of making a grandstand play.
Putin's Motives In Syria
The document also maintained that the declaration would merely be rapped as ''grandstand play'' by the international community and would be unlikely to contribute to disarmament.
Japan ruled out non-nuclear policy 8 years before declaration
Elvin Zook, M.D., past president of the ASPS, called the proposal "a grandstand play by the state comptroller, who's politically motivated."
Allure of cosmetic surgery tax attracts states; is it a hated luxury tax or a way to pay for uncompensated care? Depends on where you stand
"I think that counsel has made a grandstand play here," Magner said.
So you want to be an expert witness: hone your skills to increase your success on the witness stand
The disclosure will come as a major embarrassment to Gerry Adams, who made a grandstand play of transporting the bugging device to England last week to "return" it to Tony Blair before the Leeds Castle talks.
SEARCH STARTS FOR THE CONNOLLY MOLE; 'Inside job' theory over bug
Rigorous asset assessment may lead to drastic credit contraction, and punitive pursuit of top bank managers for their role in the bad-loan problem would end up as a mere grandstand play.
Japanese editorial excerpts
But it was a similar grandstand play to please the tough-talking nationalists, anti-NATO groups and others in Russia who want more active support for Milosevic.
RECORD VIEW; Still living in danger
"We have to consider a number of factors, like negligence, strict liability, and public nuisance," says mayoral spokesman Kevin Feeley, who insists, "This is not a grandstand play or an attempt to get a headline."
Smoking guns: a big-city mayor trains his sights on weapon makers
Koizumi was good at grandstand play, but showed little leadership (in dealing with various problems).
Japan's Diet closes leaving 2 key packages bogging down
It was a cynical grandstand play at seeming to make a concession as the Easter peace talks went on.
Comment: Time to bury families' pain
Wimbledon champ Bartoli coup for city has produced incredible reaction LIVERPOOL Cricket Club's grandstand played host to tennis yesterday for the first time in 60 years - and the bounce was as true as it was when Kramer's travelling tennis circus played there in the 1950s.
VANTAGE POINT; Borg challenged by Monte Carlo after Liverpool has got the best grandstand claiming that view in tennis Prentice David Deputy Head of Sport
From the first time Grandstand plays the theme from Champions, you know you're in for another big slice of schmaltz.
Martin Wills Awards: The Grandest tradition of them all; The Judges
This is going to be an election year, and the best poll would be a good turnout by an electorate taking an interest in the future of the country, uninfluenced by any grandstand plays by Sinn Fein.
Irish Mirror Comment: Year of hope ahead of us
Clinton has obviously incorporated this wisdom into his economic plan in the form of his new taxes on millionaires and CEOs--but these are grandstand plays meant to win over the middle class, not major new sources of government revenue.
Boiling Point: Democrats, Republicans, and the Decline of Middle-Class Prosperity