#15968
01/18/2001 12:22 AM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 866
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 866 |
Tell me, good Wordies, why is it that when a former great of the sporting arena dons a network blazer and gets behind a microphone, their vocabulary seems to be reduced to 100 words, 3 or 4 stock phrases and the compulsion to speak backwards.
Sheeeezzz it gets my goat!!!!!! (Come to to think of it, where did that one come from?
Examples:
The ad-nauseum use of, "<insert participant's name> took a great catch ON THAT OCCASSION." (For Antipodeans, Mark "Tubby" Taylor, former Oz Cricket Captain and recent arrival to the microphone is driving me nuts with this during the current One Day series).
Or, adding the person's/team's name to the comment, almost as an afterthought...."Been making up some lost ground in the last few minutes, <insert participant/team name>."
I'm pleased to say that, after a week or so, some of the "on-mikers" at the Sydney Olympics started to mock the verbal short comings of their competitors at other broadcasters. Can't remember more than the odd example, but things like, "<Competitor A> is LAYING DOWN THE GAUNTLET to <Competitor B>" was in extreme overuse on one TV channel - to become the subject of much hilarity and (deliberate) ridiculous overuse by a radio station in response.
Why don't the networks put these people through some sort of owtaspeak class before they roll the tape? (OMG - You say they DO??? - OMG!!!!!)
Glad to share my peeve - It's comforting to think that I may not be alone in getting grumpy about this verbal twaddle (and isn't twaddle a fine word - I vow to use it at least once today!!).
stales
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#15969
01/18/2001 12:48 AM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,004
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,004 |
why is it that when a former great of the sporting arena dons a network blazer and gets behind a microphone, their vocabulary seems to be reduced to 100 wordsThis presumes they had a bigger vocabulary to begin with. Any evidence for that?  And wait until the Aussies tour India - let's see if their winning streak will stand up to a little sub-continental belly...  cheer the sunshine warrior
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#15970
01/18/2001 1:23 AM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409 |
In reply to:
And wait until the Aussies tour India - let's see if their winning streak will stand up to a little sub-continental belly...
Wanna bet on it? Oops, sorry!
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#15971
01/18/2001 1:37 AM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773 |
Both athletes and announcers in the US have lost the ability to refer to a particular sport by only its name: basketball cannot be called "basketball," but must be recited as "the game of basketball;" "football" is "the game of football." They also cannot say anyone gives full effort, but must enhance the effort to a mathematical impossibility -- no one gives less than 110%.
Athletes also find it difficult to refer to themselves using ordinary pronouns, but instead talk of themselves in the third person, using full name. So, Joe Jock says, "Joe Jock always gives 110% when playing the game of basketball."
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#15972
01/18/2001 2:00 AM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409 |
IN NZ, Sky TV had a programme called Sportscafé, hosted by former sporting luminaries, and an acerbic sports tv producer. For me, the highlight of the show was "The Brain of Two Halves" - a segment of up to 5 minutes in length devoted entirely to showcasing a montage of the finest(?) examples of sports broadcasters' ability to mangle the English language. They would include clips from every country, and sporting code, imaginable. Either sports broadcasters everywhere attend the same school, or they are genetically predestined to the job. Either way, full credit to them, I say.
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#15973
01/18/2001 2:05 AM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773 |
Oooooh. Sounds like just my kind of show, that.
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#15974
01/18/2001 2:16 AM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773 |
According to Why You Say It, by Webb Garrison, stable attendants used to sooth a racehorse by stabling a goat with him as a companion, and, once the horse became attached to the goat, it created an equine crisis to remove the goat, and that is why a person who makes you frustrated or angry has gotten your goat. Garrison cautions that this explanation is based on oral tradition.
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#15975
01/18/2001 4:17 AM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 35
newbie
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newbie
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 35 |
Splitting hairs maybe? "Game" or "business" of sports? "Adversity is the whetstone of creativity"
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#15977
01/18/2001 2:51 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289 |
In spite of the horrors complained of, there have been in living memory a few sports announcers worth listening to. There was the egregious Howard Cosell, who was a lawyer at some point, who enlivened football games with a sesquipedalian vocabulary. In Baltimore there was the immortal Charlie Eckmann, a former basketball player and referee, who had an amazing stock of expressions. His favorite was "Call a cab" meaning "leave, quit, retire", as in, "The U of MD told Coach Joe Smith to call a cab today; he was fired for losing 27 games in a row." Naturally, when Charile died, the news announcement started with, "Charlie Eckmann called a cab today for the final time."
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