"Off the Schneid" and other over-used phrases

The Game Room
21

Sportscaster phrases that really irritate me:

  1. “The defense has allowed X points.” (Football) Like they just stepped aside and helpfully pointed toward the end zone. Football is a brutal war–points aren’t ‘allowed’, they’re surrendered.
  2. “Fisted foul” (Baseball). Do announcers really not know the sexual connotations of this phrase?
  3. “Dinger”, “Tater”, or any other fossilized baseball slang for a “home-run”. And while we’re at it, I know every baseball play-by-play guy thinks he has to invent his/her own brilliant, signature home-run call, but do they ever hear how ridiculous and contrived that is? I recall some tool a few years ago calling a bases-loaded home run: “Get out the mustard and rye bread, folks, that’s a GRAAAAAANNND SALAMI!” Gee, Shakespeare, how many hours did you spend working on that?
  4. Broadcasters of one sport borrowing terms from another sport to describe the action: “The free safety is playing center field,” “The center fumbles the ball in the lane,” “The winger fires a fastball from the blue line.”
  5. Any use of a plural proper noun to refer to a player type: “You’ve got your Michael Jordans, your Scottie Pippins…” No, you have one MJ and one Pippin; anything else is wishful thinking.
22

“I know, I know. Write it down.”

:smiley:

p.s. You stole my post.

23

Here one that annoys me for no major reason:
“The pitcher deals… a strike”.

It’s baseball, not Texas Hold’em!

24

Heard on the radio, seen in AP news articles and blogs:

“[so and so, who is currently struggling] needs to get untracked.”

“Untracked” isn’t a word. The phrase you’re looking for is “back on track.” Even if “untracked” was a word, it would mean the opposite of what you intend.

25

I could answer this question but I keep thinking outside the box.