Right out of the bat
Posted: October 27, 2012 Filed under: ACTION, THINGS | Tags: baseball, blended idioms, expressions, malaphors, mixed idioms, off the bat, out of the box, words 2 CommentsThis is a mixture of “right out of the box” and “right off the bat”, both baseball metaphors and both meaning “first thing.” Thanks to John C. for passing this one along!
Malaphors 
Are you sure “right out of the box” is a baseball metaphor? In the sense of running out of the batter’s box towards first base, or …?
I always thought it had to do with consumer appliances/gadgets that are functional “right out of the box”
You may be right, Peter. I always thought it referred to a batter running to first base right out of the batter’s box, which is the immediate thing to do after hitting the ball.