# Stupid things sportscasters say **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [August 18, 2008, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-things-sportscasters-say/460433 "2008-08-18T15:55:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-things-sportscasters-say/460433/41 "2008-08-20T00:23:22Z")
[QUOTE=wheresgeorge04] …Also, Madden likes to say things along the line of “Now THIS is a FOOTBALL team!” like the other guys are synchronized swimmers or something. [/QUOTE] hehe… same with golf - they are always saying “That’s a great golf shot”. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-things-sportscasters-say/460433/42 "2008-08-20T00:49:42Z")
[QUOTE=gonzomax] In the hurdles yesterday the announcer pointed out if they failed to clear the first hurdle they would not finish. I am glad I have that understanding now. [/QUOTE] I suppose it’s theoretically possible that if ALL the runners smashed into the first hurdle simultaneously, you could maybe be the first one to get back up and start running again. As a matter of fact, that would make the event really fun to watch. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-things-sportscasters-say/460433/43 "2008-08-20T01:36:30Z")
Change the hurdles into small brick walls and it’s even better. I’d watch that any time. ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-things-sportscasters-say/460433/44 "2008-08-20T04:48:21Z")
[QUOTE=K364] hehe… same with golf - they are always saying “That’s a great golf shot”. [/QUOTE] Yeah, but people say that on the course all the time. It differentiates the golf shot from the shot of alcohol in your bag, I guess? ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-things-sportscasters-say/460433/45 "2008-08-20T04:51:44Z")
The Belgian Grand Prix a few years ago: the TSN announcer who was filling in for the regular guy obviously was not familiar with the sport at all, because he kept referring to the track as “The Spa”. ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-things-sportscasters-say/460433/46 "2008-08-20T09:43:42Z")
[QUOTE=MHaye] In the UK, we call this kind of malapropism “Colemanballs” after Private Eye (I think) started a column collecting this kind of wit, because David Coleman sometimes let enthusiasm get the better of him. But the person with the greatest reputation for these is Murray Walker. He’s retired now, but he was the BBCs motorsport commentator (and particularly Formula 1) for nigh on 50 years. I think the finest example, which happened back some 30 years ago was when he was commenting on a rallycross event. Rallycross was a sort of hybrid event that the BBC used to cover on a Saturday afternoon. Carswould race round a circuit that was part tarmac and part mud track. There was lots of junk thrown up, so the windscreen cleaners were always on, except for the front runner. Murray had just finished explaining the advantages of leading in this form of competition, including the huge benefit that you could easily see where you were going, when the leader of the race ran into the side of a hill they were suppose to steer around. I can still see this car bounding into the pile of earth that stood higher than the car. I wonder if it’s on YouTube; I’d doubt it personally, as it’s BBC archive footage that probably antedates video recorders. One of Murray’s problems was that he regularly jinxed British F1 drivers. He’d joyfully proclaim that so-and-so “must surely win now”; if so-and-so was a British driver, a bit would fall off his car, or fall off someone else’s car and in avoiding it he’d crash. Alternatively, he’d drive over shards of bodywork, puncture the tyre and crash. It got to the point where his co-commentators would remind him that the driver now in the lead had asked him not to predict their sure win. Or he would, and immediately say that he’d jinxed them. If I could still find my Colemanballs books (collections published by Private Eye 20-30 years ago) I’d have a rich vein of these to mine. [/QUOTE] I came in to mention much the same things. They must be easy to find on-line (just google “Colemanballs” or “Murrayisms”), but one or two spring to mind. Coleman: “The line-up for the women’s 800m is a Spaniard, two Americans, a Cuban, a Canadian, two Japanese, and a Frenchman”. Walker: “Do my eyes deceive me, or is Senna’s Lotus sounding rough?” ---
**Author:** ![Svejk\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@Svejk\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Svejk_1)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-things-sportscasters-say/460433/47 "2008-08-20T10:00:12Z")
I hate how in football, once the score comes to 2-0 with another 20 minutes to play, the reporter will inevitably say something like ‘this game’s over, it’s all over, including for [football player], who wanted to win so badly’ (unlike the rest, who just don’t care :smack: ). Then the other team will score and he’ll say something like ‘this game’s wide open again, anything can happen now, is [football team] really going to make the miracle happen?’. Also, the stupid, stupid counterfactuals. ‘[One team] scored in the first fifteen minutes, but if that hadn’t happened and [other team] _had_ scored, we’d have been watching an entirely different match’. :smack: Not to mention how different the game might have been if a herd of flying pigs had crashed on top of the other team at the end of the first half. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-things-sportscasters-say/460433/48 "2008-08-20T10:53:58Z")
You hear this one in basketball all the time now: “Scoring the ball.” I loathe it. You can’t score _without_ the ball and there is nothing else to score _with_\*, so this is just a stupid redundancy announcers came up with because they decided “scoring the basketball” sounds more definitive than plain old “scoring,” even though it always makes me wonder if the player is in fact very skilled at etching marks into the ball and can often be found doing so while seated on the bench. _Shawn Kemp, Patrick Ewing and other stars who couldn’t keep it in their pants off the court notwithstanding._ ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-things-sportscasters-say/460433/49 "2008-08-20T13:20:15Z")
[QUOTE=Švejk] …Not to mention how different the game might have been if a herd of flying pigs had crashed on top of the other team at the end of the first half. :rolleyes: [/QUOTE] I’d pay good money to see that, and I’m not even much of a football fan! ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-things-sportscasters-say/460433/50 "2008-08-20T21:21:59Z")
When Michael Jordan returned to the Bulls, some radio announcer said, “Christians have been waiting 2000 years for the return of their savior. Bulls fans only had to wait 18 months.” (or however long it was.) :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Man_With_a_Cat)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-things-sportscasters-say/460433/51 "2008-08-20T21:31:19Z")
Quotes here are approximate. A couple weeks ago, (keep in mind, sometime in early August) on the cubs radio broadcast (wife was in the car and made me listen), Pat Hughes and everyone’s favorite senile uncle - Ron Santo were on. Pat mentioned that today was the anniversary of the day back in 1970-something that another little cubby joined the team as a rookie. Ron: I remember that, when he started, it was sometime in September. Pat: Well, Ron, today’s the anniversary, so it must have been August. Ron: Yep, I remember, sometime in mid-September. Pat: Today’s August (whatever the day was) Ron, so it probably wasn’t September. Ron: Ah hey, you’re right it must have been August… ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-things-sportscasters-say/460433/52 "2008-08-20T21:51:38Z")
Heh. One of the MSNBC Olympics commentators just mentioned that the US baseball team “shut out Japan 4-2.” Neat trick. ---
**Author:** ![Natch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/858c86/32.png) [@Natch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Natch)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-things-sportscasters-say/460433/53 "2008-08-20T22:28:37Z")
While watching the Olympics coverage I was told that Phelps, ‘literally blew the other competitors out the water!’ That would be awesome though. ---
**Author:** ![cards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecd19e/32.png) [@cards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cards)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2008, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-things-sportscasters-say/460433/54 "2008-08-21T18:02:15Z")
OK, here is some wonderful interaction I had the pleasure to witness on MSNBC between Tiki Barber and Jenna Wolfe (who?), click on the video: > **[MSNBC's "Olympic Update" Continues To Disrespect The Beijing Games](http://awfulannouncing.blogspot.com/2008/08/msnbcs-olympic-update-continues-to.html)** > > Everyone saw the goofy clip of Tiki Barber getting lifted off the set by Rulon Gardner right (if not, click here )? Well, Barber has been g... This blog tracks the worst of the worst. There’s a lot of it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-things-sportscasters-say/460433.md?page=2)