Sports Talk

Sports Talk.... to many it conjures up the sound of WFAN or WEEI radio stations. Since 1987, sports talk stations have given us 24/7 coverage of our favorite teams. The good and bad on the field and the ugly off the field. It's where excuses become reasons and frustrated non-athletes become experts. A place where fans can play General Manager and Joe from New Jersey can get his own talk show. Yes, a whole generation has grown up on this non-stop critiquing of the athletes who play the games we love to watch. But, this is not about that kind of sports talk, this is about the kind of sports talk that has become ingrained in our culture.

The language of sports has been around for as long as the games have been played. Even Osama Bin Laden who actually does live in a cave, knows what a home run, a touchdown or a goal is. As I read Chapter 17 of "On Writing Well" by William Zinsser, I thought about how that language has been used both properly and improperly. It is a language riddled with cliches. The lazy announcers and writers fall into the cliche trap.

The team one game away from elimination has "its back to the walls", the team coming from behind to win has "snatched victory from the jaws of defeat" and the baseball player having trouble getting a hit is "mired" in a slump. There have been a couple of cliches that have made its way into the language of sports that I just don't get. In baseball, its the "walk-off". We have the walk-off hit, the walk-off home run and the one I laughed the hardest at last season, the walk-off balk. So what makes walk-off so special that it gets its own word ? Baseball fans know that for the home team to win a game in the bottom of the ninth inning or in extra innings it has to be a walk-off something. And what is a true freshman ? In college football and basketball a player has five years of eligibility on their scholarship. If they get injured and miss a year they can "red shirt" the season. For a long time you were either a red-shirted freshman (second year of eligibility) or you were a freshman. About three or four years ago, that freshman became a "true freshman". As opposed to what ? A false freshman ? It's just a cliche created for no reason, yet, if you listen to all network announcers, it has become a regular part of their broadcast language.

Lazy announcers and lazy writers can fill the media with one cliche after another. The key to success is to paint the description using words and expressions that everyone can understand. As Zinsser writes, "the value to look for when you write about sport: people and places, time and transition". If you want to understand what that really means, go on You Tube and listen to Vin Scully announce one inning of any Dodgers game.