Terminating Terminology
Posted: Mon Dec 19, 2011 8:38 am
As most of you know, I have a lot of fantasy pet peeves.
'Value', 'Sleeper', 'Expert', 'On Pace'...All stupid. For new readers, I'll have a post later on the why's(wise).
Some phrases rub me the wrong way as well.
Man, I am sounding like the proverbial 'grumpy old man' here!
'Speed never slumps' is, of course, hogwash. That slogan for Judys had to have been made up by a Scott Boras type representing a Tony Campana type. In fact though, it has been used since Campy Campaneris and probably before.
When 'Speed never slumps' is just wrong and a slump does occur, the phrase, 'You can't steal first base is applied.
This phrase is for the Campana's and Joey Gathrights of the world who use most of their speed for a game in pre-game warmups.
'Great pitching beats great hitting'.
For 16 innings Juan Marichal dueled Warren Spahn. Both Managers resigned to the fact that neither of these Hall of Famers were going to be the first to leave the game and use the bullpen. It was truly the last pitchers duel of its kind. It went 16 innings until Willie Mays blasted Spahns first pitch to him in the 16th for the game winning home run.
Both pitchers threw over 200 pitches and if Mays hadn't ended the game, most likely, both would have ended with closer to 300.
Spahn was 42, Marichal, 25. Herman Franks, the Giants Manager, wanted to take his young stud out after the 10th, 11th, and 12th, each time rebuffed by Marichal. Marichal once saying, 'I'm not leaving before the old guy!'
So, does great pitching beat great hitting?
Like that game, great pitching will beat great hitting for long periods of time, but some great hitter will also get the best of a great pitcher.
'You can never have enough pitching'. This is a 'duh'.
In our own lives we can say, 'We can never have enough money'. It doesn't need to be said. It's a 'duh' or throwaway line.
After eight pitches in an at bat, an announcer will say, 'This is a great at bat!'.
Really?
Could it be that he has taken three pitches for balls and fouled off a few pitches?
Most of us played baseball as kids and had at bats where we fouled off a lot of pitches in an at bat. We didn't think it was a great at bat. If we felt over matched by a pitcher, we were either hoping for another called ball or for him to make a mistake.
If the pitcher is somebody we should be hitting, then those fouls are probably just pisssing us off, knowing we should have killed some of those balls. Some long at bats are great at bats, most are not.
This one really gets me going and it's used in every sport- 'He had the presence of mind to....'
It doesn't matter what the player had the presence of mind to do. He's a professional player in his sport. A pitcher should have the 'presence of mind' to find the ball and throw to first after taking a line drive off his hip. A running back should have the 'presence of mind' to continue running if he's not down. C'mon man. This is just an over credit for a good play.
'We're going to war'.
I'll use the aforementioned Warren Spahn for this one.
Spahn's career was interrupted when he served his country. When he came back he said, any player that says 'going to war' before playing a game of baseball, has never seen a real war.
Nuff said.
Next post or thread, the number one phrase that gets under my skin....
'Value', 'Sleeper', 'Expert', 'On Pace'...All stupid. For new readers, I'll have a post later on the why's(wise).
Some phrases rub me the wrong way as well.
Man, I am sounding like the proverbial 'grumpy old man' here!
'Speed never slumps' is, of course, hogwash. That slogan for Judys had to have been made up by a Scott Boras type representing a Tony Campana type. In fact though, it has been used since Campy Campaneris and probably before.
When 'Speed never slumps' is just wrong and a slump does occur, the phrase, 'You can't steal first base is applied.
This phrase is for the Campana's and Joey Gathrights of the world who use most of their speed for a game in pre-game warmups.
'Great pitching beats great hitting'.
For 16 innings Juan Marichal dueled Warren Spahn. Both Managers resigned to the fact that neither of these Hall of Famers were going to be the first to leave the game and use the bullpen. It was truly the last pitchers duel of its kind. It went 16 innings until Willie Mays blasted Spahns first pitch to him in the 16th for the game winning home run.
Both pitchers threw over 200 pitches and if Mays hadn't ended the game, most likely, both would have ended with closer to 300.
Spahn was 42, Marichal, 25. Herman Franks, the Giants Manager, wanted to take his young stud out after the 10th, 11th, and 12th, each time rebuffed by Marichal. Marichal once saying, 'I'm not leaving before the old guy!'
So, does great pitching beat great hitting?
Like that game, great pitching will beat great hitting for long periods of time, but some great hitter will also get the best of a great pitcher.
'You can never have enough pitching'. This is a 'duh'.
In our own lives we can say, 'We can never have enough money'. It doesn't need to be said. It's a 'duh' or throwaway line.
After eight pitches in an at bat, an announcer will say, 'This is a great at bat!'.
Really?
Could it be that he has taken three pitches for balls and fouled off a few pitches?
Most of us played baseball as kids and had at bats where we fouled off a lot of pitches in an at bat. We didn't think it was a great at bat. If we felt over matched by a pitcher, we were either hoping for another called ball or for him to make a mistake.
If the pitcher is somebody we should be hitting, then those fouls are probably just pisssing us off, knowing we should have killed some of those balls. Some long at bats are great at bats, most are not.
This one really gets me going and it's used in every sport- 'He had the presence of mind to....'
It doesn't matter what the player had the presence of mind to do. He's a professional player in his sport. A pitcher should have the 'presence of mind' to find the ball and throw to first after taking a line drive off his hip. A running back should have the 'presence of mind' to continue running if he's not down. C'mon man. This is just an over credit for a good play.
'We're going to war'.
I'll use the aforementioned Warren Spahn for this one.
Spahn's career was interrupted when he served his country. When he came back he said, any player that says 'going to war' before playing a game of baseball, has never seen a real war.
Nuff said.
Next post or thread, the number one phrase that gets under my skin....