that’s the ball game—there is nothing one can do about a situation:
- I have to give points to Potter for her creativity…. But the film failed to engage me in its central drama and that’s the ball game.
that’s the way the ball bounces —(also: that’s the way the cookie crumbles) that’s the way things happen (used with the implication that there are some things that we cannot control and have to accept):
- He was fired. That’s too bad, but that’s the way the ball bounces in a recession.