They should not lose their eye on the ball

On Morning Joe, Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Dave Campbell was discussing vaccine development and warning vaccine developers that “they should not lose their eye on the ball”. This is a congruent conflation of “don’t lose sight (of something)” and “keep your eye on the ball”, both meaning to focus/concentrate on something. “Sight” and “eye” are related which may have contributed to this great mashup. Atip of the hat to Donna Calvert for hearing this one and sending it on!