Baseball Season

[JimRiley]

Good luck to all as your lengthy thrill ride gets going. I hope you will use the language correctly

"Jackson flew out in the second (and boy are his arms tired)" The ball flew. Jackson presumably ran to first. Yes, flew is the past tense of fly, but this is baseball, the sport that thinks .2 is the same as 2/3. Use flied

Notoriety means being famous for doing something bad. Jeffrey Dahmer, for example. The word is a noun rooted in notorious. Your favorite underrated ballplayer doesn't get notoriety, nor should he

When you say "hopefully", you are using it to describe your own feelings. "Hopefully, Jackson gets more notoriety this year" means you want him to kill someone.

Swag is an acronym for Stuff We All Get. Means gifts. Swagger means bravado, self-confidence. "Jackson's playing with a lot of swag" means he didn't stow any of his free stuff before the game.

A batted ball that bounces over the fence is a book rule double. Grounds (not ground) rule doubles are two base hits affected by specific quirks in the ballpark. Sometimes on flies.

And it's the foul pole

[Jon Chelesnik]

Jim -- you've been an outstanding contributor to this board for as long as I can remember. This post, though, is your best of the best. Entertaining and RIGHT ON!

[Bob Rotruck]

Interesting observations.
I immediately note the usage of "flew out" to mean that broadcaster likely isn't as strong. If a former player uses it on color then so be it. But if you're a professional play-by-play announcer and you care about your craft then it HAS to be "flied" when it is a baseball game.
If the ball sailed out to center for a homerun you can say that it "flew" over the fence. But if it is the act of catching the ball for a "fly out" then the past tense of the act of catching the ball must always be "flies out."

I won't disagree with anyone who wants to argue that this is silly...as is the entire English language in many respects really. But this is what it has to be.

The Ground rule double argument I understand but do not fully agree. That is a popular colloquial term for a ball that bounces over the fence (which usually isn't a fence and is actually a wall but I digress). I'm okay with saying that as I am also okay with saying the plural of RBI as "RBI's" even though we are now basically saying "Runs Batted Ins". Similarly, "RBI's" is a popular, colloquial way to say the plural of RBI even if it is not technically correct.

[Bob Rotruck]

Seriously, especially for young announcers, it is important to try to get on board with this grammar and word-choice stuff. You will still make mistakes. But if you strive to improve then that is huge.

Without the effort to solidify your grammar you run the risk of sounding way too close to my five year old daughter who thinks "sawed" is the past tense of see and "take-ded" is the past tense of take.

[Jon Chelesnik]

Loved this ...

Without the effort to solidify your grammar you run the risk of sounding way too close to my five year old daughter who thinks "sawed" is the past tense of see and "take-ded" is the past tense of take.

There is a higher level of expectation for broadcasters to speak well than for most professions.

[Bob Rotruck]

Since my earlier reply I have since looked up "notoriety" which I suspect I have mis-used at some point.
There are some who do actually use the word as a synonym for "famous" irrespective of whether it is bad or not. And that is a common usage. But it does appear that the more proper definition involves doing something bad and is related to notorious as stated earlier.

Grammar is always a work in progress. This is one example where I just made another small improvement (or, at least, have avoided a future error). Similar to when I first started in student radio at 18 years old and my Mom told me to stop saying "anyways." I have no idea why I remember something as small as that which happened 30 years ago but I do.
I know that I also used to say "irregardless" because it was a word my Dad would use frequently. Now I will generally use "regardless" or "irrespective"