Meaning: Put at a disadvantage or unfavorable position (definition).

Example: With nothing but difficult options before him, Bill found himself behind the eight ball.

Origins: Billiards and the game of Eight Ball, perhaps Eight-ball Croquet. First use is in the 1929 Sheboygan Press about baseball. (Source.)


Rewrites: behind the hate ball behind the black ball behind the odd ball behind the mid-ball behind the killer ball menaced by the eight ball intimidated by the eight ball gamed by the eight ball galled by the eight ball on the unlucky side of the eight ball
Discussion: I tried to play on the variety of ways you might think of facing an eight ball in a game of billiards. 

Update: I had struggled with rewriting this cliche for some reason. As I was promoting his page on social media, an entirely new angle hit me - other game metaphors:

caught between the chutes and the ladders caught at the bottom of a Sorry! slide