pennant ˈpe-nənt noun
1. a flag longer than it is wide (and often tapering)
2. the award given to the champion
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The word pennant has appeared in 83 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on Nov. 29 in “Soon to Be Alone in Oakland, the A’s Inch Closer to a New Stadium” by Tyler Kepner:
It all seems so perfect, naturally, in the artist’s rendering of the Oakland Athletics’ proposed new stadium. Fans of all kinds flock to the ballpark by Howard Terminal — young, old, black, white, one in a wheelchair, one walking a dog. The distinctive silver cargo loaders on the bay loom to the left, while a military flyover roars overhead. The marquee declares this the 2023 World Series.
That would mark 33 years since the Athletics’ last appearance in the World Series, a stretch that would nearly rival the franchise’s chasm between pennants from 1931 to 1972. Those fruitless decades were eventful, at least, as the franchise migrated from Philadelphia to Kansas City to the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, where it has remained.
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