“Give me some more,” urged the fast-talking 47-year-old, who teaches 9th- and 12th-grade English as well as human sexuality.

His goal was to prompt the students in Sexuality and Society - an elective for seniors at the private Friends’ Central School on Philadelphia’s affluent Main Line - to examine the assumptions buried in the venerable metaphor.

“First base, second base, third base, home run,” Al Vernacchio ticked off the classic baseball terms for sex acts.