Ball game and Meat-and-potatoes

Ball game noun - An earnest effort for superiority or victory over another.

Meat-and-potatoes and ball game are semantically related. In some cases you can replace phrase "Meat-and-potatoes" with "Ball game", this phrases are similar.

Meat-and-potatoes adjective - Of or relating to the simplest facts or theories of a subject.

Ball game and meat-and-potatoes are semantically related. Sometimes you can use "Ball game" instead a noun phrase "Meat-and-potatoes".