A "cup of coffee" is a North American sports idiom for a short time spent by a minor league player at the major league level. The idea behind the term is that the player was only in the big leagues long enough to have a cup of coffee before being returned to the minors, or simply to describe a brief stint served with a professional team. The term originated in baseball, is extensively used in ice hockey, and rarely in basketball since the NBA has never implemented a true farm system.
One example of how this term is used in a sentence was during the 1996 film The Fan, in which Robert De Niro's character, a middle-aged former pitcher, says, "I was in the bigs for a cup of coffee myself until my arm went south."
Read more about Cup Of Coffee: Notable Baseball Cups of Coffee
Famous quotes related to cup of coffee:
“It is surely easier to confess a murder over a cup of coffee than in front of a jury.”
—Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–1990)
“The morning cup of coffee has an exhiliration about it which the cheering influence of the afternoon or evening cup of tea cannot be expected to reproduce.”
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894)