It's not unusual, to steal a line from elsewhere, to be born on third base and think you hit a triple.
That's a fantastic expression. I just looked it up -- the internet thinks that it originated with Barry Switzer, a former head coach of the Dallas Cowboys.
My sense of order would've been served better if one of baseball's many famous wisecracks had come up with that line. A football coach originating baseball metaphors, egads!
The kernel of "born on third base" is 50 years older. "The Yale Book of Quotations" lists several variations from the 1930's the oldest is from 12 May 1934, Hammond (IN) Times, pg. 4, col. 2: "A genius is one who seems a wonder because he was born on third base."
I'd always heard it in the context of people using it to describe children of privilege who assume everything they achieved in life was down to their own merit. I remember it being used (and I am not making a political statement either way) in regard to George W. Bush, and I've seen it used in regards to certain CEOs and execs who got their positions because of work their parents or grandparents put in rather than on their own efforts.
That's a fantastic expression. I just looked it up -- the internet thinks that it originated with Barry Switzer, a former head coach of the Dallas Cowboys.
http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/23536.html