You're welcome. I'm glad I still had that electronic copy on my office PC.
But it is nice to know where AP got the phrase. I didn't know that. I always had this image in my head of Jack picking himself up off the ground in the ring after he didn't make his eight seconds. ...
Thanks for the reminder Jeff. This really is making me realize that I need to re-read the story again. I'm thinking, though, that in them early days when I read the story frequently, I may not have even registered that "getting up off his pockets" was a reference to bull riding. I think it can be a more general phrase too, about getting up and getting moving.
Mostly when I've heard announcers use the phrase it essentially means "get up off your Wrangler pockets"... usually in reference to posture on the bull when you leave the chute. It's best to be sitting up straight or leaning slightly forward. If you're slouching or leaning back at the very beginning, it can be very easy for the bull to whip you forward and off pretty quickly as he bolts out of the chute. Sometimes during a ride you pretty much need to lean back to make a countermove, so it can mean something different during the course of a ride vs. at the beginning. Bending at the waist and leaning slightly forward in many cases is basic, good form and would demonstrate control (maybe this is the "control zone" idea from BBM)... This would be the case especially if the bull is mostly spinning rather than kicking. In the picture on my avatar Brian needs to be leaning back... since the bull is in such a steep pitch kicking. In this case if he bent at the waist and leaned forward, he'd be "dashboarded". The fact that he's able to keep his back up as much as it is (not essentially laying down on the bull's back) at this angle takes a lot of core strength. So they say.