"on the ball"

[AngryScientist]

i think a little know fact is the origin of the phrase "on the ball".

way back in the early days of the american railroad, when the lines were expanding fast and furious - timekeeping became, literally, a life-or-death matter. it was also fairly common at that time for pocket watches to be notoriously bad at keeping time. needless to say, a few fatal crashes later - someone needed to step up to the plate and create accurate timepieces to be used by railroad engineers to precisely gauge where their trains were - and when. Enter Mr. Webb C. Ball. The man who revolutionized the accuracy of timepieces used aboard the rail system, thus making the trains run more efficiently, and more important - safely.

so - if you were to be asking an early american train engineer : "Are you on the Ball" - you were asking about his adherence to his finely crafted, precise timepiece, not necessarily his personal performance.

I've become enamored with Ball watches as of recently, they have some beautiful pieces, and quite a cool history. this one is a beauty IMO:

[al415]

I'd always thought it originated along the lines of how it's explained here: On the ball Having said that, I prefer your version.